All Good Things Come to an End
by Solarian Sunbeam
Summary: "The Magical Dimension has fallen... There are 24 of you in total - a group of 12, a group of 10, and a pair... Only half of you will survive... Atleast one person must die each day... Let the games begin!"
1. Prologue

So much can happen in a year. Before the girls left for a world-wide tour, courtesy of Jason Queen, Nabu returned from Tides after a long sleep, which was finally broken after the ancient sorcerers of Tides put an end to the curse. He and Layla promised eachother they would start preparations for their wedding after her return.

King Radius and Queen Luna settled their differences long enough to be introduced to Brandon properly. Not only were they pleased with Stella's choice of a boyfriend, but cancelled all meetings with princes across the magical dimension to allow the pair to be together, and have even warmed up to one another despite a rather hideous divorce.

Flora visited Diana and the Amazonian fairies rather frequently during her stay on Earth, and thanks to her and the other nature fairies, the forest, as well as many other nature reserves across the planet, have been spared of destruction. This act didn't go unnoticed by the officials back on Linphea, who have assigned Flora her own private gardens to work on new natural remedies with her new-found knowledge on Earth medicine.

Musa returned from the tour on Earth to be greeted by Ho-Boe, who swore that he would help her in her music career back in Melody. Her experiences on Earth to what it's like to be a professional singer have boosted Musa's confidence and have persuaded her more than anything that singing is what she wants to do. Musa and Riven's relationship is stronger than ever.

Tecna was given the honour of presenting a case study on Earthlings at an important meeting back on Zenith. Timmy helped her gather all of the information she needed, and Roxy even agreed to represent the Earth fairies as well as the humans. Tecna was given a grant to continue her research on ordinary humans on Earth, which she used to her full advantage. As well as performing on stage and working at Love and Pet, she was able to produce stacks of information which has proved crucial in the promotion of belief in fairies on Earth.

All of the Specialists had graduated from Red Fountain with honours, and the Winx would be going back to Magix to complete their final year at Alfea to learn how to be Fairy Godmothers. Ms Faragonda was more than happy to take up the position of teaching the Winx Club. The girls deserved options, should they ever want to take another career path.

Roxy attended her first year of Alfea. She made a new group of friends, ones her own age, but stayed in touch with the Winx. She decided to start sophomore year a little later, as she wants to spend more time with Morgana and Klaus, who will be taking Love and Pet under their wing as well as running the Frutti Music Bar.

Bloom had found her real parents, and was pronounced the official Princess of Sparx and royal heir to the throne. After a few complications, Sky managed to propose to Bloom properly. She said yes. King Erendor of Eraklyon took up his position to replace Sky, who wanted to spend as much time with his new fiancée as possible. A date for the wedding has yet to be decided, but Sky already has a date in mind – the day he first met Bloom, in Gardenia.

Everything was perfect.

It's just a shame it never stays that way for long, isn't it?


	2. Chapter 1

Musa pushed the last of the boxes towards the door to the apartment. She allowed her eyes to roam over the empty space one last time. It had been her home for over a year. Looking at the bare countertops and the dust shadow where Tecna's computer desk used to be, she felt her stomach tighten. She missed the place already.

"Hurry up Muse! The guys are coming to get the last of the stuff!"

"Coming Bloom!" Musa shouted back. She looked down the stairs to see her redheaded friend carrying two heavy boxes down the stairs. Brandon and Riven ran past her on either side, making her lose her balance.

"Sorry Bloom!" Brandon chuckled as he bounded up the last of the steps with Riven hot on his heels.

"No need to be such a show-off," Riven grinned at his brunette friend. Brandon simply shrugged his shoulders and picked up the last of the boxes. "Hey Musa."

"Hi Riven!" Musa smiled at her boyfriend, who was taking away some of the boxes Brandon was struggling to balance.

"I could have handled it," Brandon pouted.

"Oh snookums, no you couldn't," Stella giggled from the large bedroom at the end of the apartment.

"Could so," Brandon smirked. Instead of doing as he was told, he dropped the boxes and ran over to his girlfriend, who squealed in delight when he picked her up and spun her round on the spot.

Riven pulled a face. "Get a room."

"We're in one," Stella stuck out her tongue immaturely, making Musa giggle.

"Guys! Hurry up! The Specialists have to get back to the fire station!"

"Don't remind me," Brandon rolled his eyes before kissing his girlfriend on the lips. "I'll see you later, princess."

Brandon and Riven carried the last of the boxes down the flights of stairs to an impatient Bloom. She and Sky had been waiting for the two Specialists for a whole four minutes, and time was quickly running out.

"About time you got here! Do you have any idea-"

"Save the lecture mom," Riven interrupted. "Just grab the cart and let's go!"

"Bye, Bloom." Sky bowed his head to kiss his fiancée on the cheek. The guys then left, leaving the redhead with her thoughts.

"This is it," she said aloud to herself. "We're leaving Gardenia for good."

"Bittersweet, huh?" Musa mumbled. She was trying to stop herself from crying, with very little success. She'd built a name for herself here. People knew who she was. It was painful saying goodbye to Jason, after all he'd done for her and the girls, but she knew it was time to leave.

"Where's Flora and Layla?" Stella looked around for her two friends.

"Closing up shop. Tecna's at the Frutti Music Bar interviewing the locals on living in a non-magical environment."

"That's our Tec," Musa grinned. The other girls nodded and walked down the street towards Love and Pet, which already looked empty and abandoned, though most of the furniture was still inside. "It's so weird!"

"I know," Bloom agreed. "Hey! There's Morgana!"

At the sound of her name, the former Queen of the Earth fairies looked towards Bloom and smiled. "Hello girls! Came to say goodbye?"

"Something like that," Bloom confessed. "Have the pets already gone?"

"Roxy's taken them back to the Frutti Music Bar. Kiko insisted on staying with Mike and Vanessa, but Belle was more than happy to follow Roxy."

"How's my precious Ginger?" Stella asked hurriedly. She hadn't seen her poodle in days so she could get used to not having the blonde fairy around.

"Still a little uncomfortable, but they'll all adjust," Morgana assured her.

"So what's gonna happen to Love and Pet?"

"Klaus has the Frutti Music Bar, I'm sure Roxy and I can handle Love and Pet. We just have to redecorate, seeing as we won't be able to use the music, fashion or exercise sections anymore."

"I hope you have as much fun with it as we have," Flora told her sincerely.

"Thank you Flora. Have you girls said goodbye to Roxy?"

"Not yet," the flower fairy blushed nervously. She wasn't a fan of goodbyes.

"Well here's your chance! I'll leave you girls alone."

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us to Alfea? A new session's starting soon, and I'm sure you'd love it!" Stella beamed.

The girl shook her head, her pale violet hair falling over her matching deep eyes. She'd made the decision to not follow her friends long before they even asked – she suspected the question would come up eventually, and firmly reminded herself that for now she wanted to stay on Earth. Even though she'd only learnt how to control her powers recently, and that she was desperate to learn more, Roxy knew she couldn't leave Earth just yet, and told the head mistress of Alfea School for fairies that she'd postpone her education for another month or so, to catch up with her parents. Roxy believed she'd be fine until then. She had plenty of non-magical friends where she lived, she had a family, a job, and she couldn't leave it all behind so easily…

"Sorry Stell, my mind's made up, but I'll visit you guys when I get back to Alfea, I promise!" Roxy's eyes gleamed. The fairy could see her other friends' heads droop with disappointment over Stella's shoulder.

"We'll miss you Roxy," Flora sighed, her beautiful green eyes brimming with tears.

"And I'll miss you guys too, you've been the best friends a girl could have," Roxy grinned.

"Ladies I hate to be a bother," Tecna interrupted, "but the boys will be here in a few minutes and we'll have to leave."

"Thanks for the heads up Tec," Musa smiled gratefully towards the pink-haired girl, whose fingers were tapping away at a small device. Tecna nodded to show that she had acknowledged Musa's reply and turned back to typing out a message to Timmy. "It's so weird that you won't be coming with us," Musa hinted to Roxy as a final attempt to persuade the fairy to come with them.

"Musa," Roxy sighed, rubbing her left arm awkwardly. "I can't, I have to stay on Earth for a while. Nebula's gonna teach me a few tricks, and someone has to protect these guys, right?"

"Roxy's right you guys," Bloom chipped in. The redhead had been fairly quiet throughout the goodbye, mainly because – as much as it pained her to admit it – Roxy had a point. Her place was here on Earth, just like the girl's duty was to their own realms. "We have to respect her decision."

"I respect it," Layla butted in, "but I'm not happy about it. What if we stayed here a little longer?"

"You know we can't do that Layla, Ms Faragonda's waiting for us back at Alfea."

"I know Flo," Layla accepted rather reluctantly. There was no way around this one; the girls would have to say goodbye to Roxy.

"Goodbye Roxy," Flora was the first to step forward and embrace the fairy. "We'll all miss you."

The rest of the girls followed Flora's example and wrapped their arms around one another, keeping their tears at bay. All except Stella of course, who was an emotional wreck. The blonde simply couldn't mask her emotions as well as the other girls, and willingly let the tears flow down her pretty face, smudging her mascara in the process.

"Oh Stella sweetie, it'll be okay," Flora said gently in an attempt to soothe her friend, who seemed to be letting out more water than there was in the realm of Tides.

"It's just… s-so… hard!" Stella hiccupped. Tecna, who came from a wired realm and wasn't used to such dramatic displays of emotion, had to stifle a giggle that was rising in her throat at her poor friend's unhappiness.

The girls broke apart, every one of them now finding it hard to hold in their tears. Flora was the first to break down, followed by Musa, Bloom, and finally Layla and Tecna. Roxy let out a shaky laugh.

"You'll be fine without me, I already told you I'll be joining you guys in Magix in a month," Roxy said positively. The girls nodded their heads glumly. It'd be a whole month until they'd see their friend again. Before any more words could be exchanged, Sky, Timmy and Nabu rounded the corner, followed by Roxy's Croatian bloodhound Artu, who was hot on Timmy's heels.

"The ship's ready! Timmy and Brandon made a few modifications, and Nabu's worked his magic so it won't be seen in daylight, so we're ready when you are," Sky informed the girls, twirling a key ring on his forefinger. He stopped when he saw the girls snivelling in a small group.

"Are you sure you don't wanna come with us?" Nabu asked Roxy.

"Yup, I'm gonna stay here with my dad, but I promise I'll see you guys soon," she smiled. The boys looked at the girls, who were now all huddled together crying, although it was safe to say that Stella stood out the most.

"Need a tissue Stell?" Nabu looked towards the blonde, who was doing her best to fix her hair in the reflection of a window in the back alley. She shot him a deathly glare.

"Any more wise-cracks like that, and I might just put you back into that nice little sleep of yours," Stella warned.

"Point taken," Nabu raised his hands defensively but chuckled all the same. "Not that I'd complain, that nap did wonders for my complexion." The rest of the group laughed at Nabu's clever way of sneaking in one of Stella's own quotes into his come-back. Even Stella found it funny, and had managed to stop crying.

"Goodbye Roxy!" the girls sang in unison.

"Bye guys! Hey Bloom; I'll keep an eye on Mike and Vanessa for you."

"Thanks Roxy, they're gonna need it!" Bloom joked.

She'd already given her Earth parents a hearty farewell, and she had agreed that she'd keep in touch via. Roxy when she went back to Magix. It was sometimes hard to reach them from another dimension, but Tecna had created a device which enabled fairies to communicate with one another, which Bloom and Roxy agreed to use to pass on messages to Bloom's parents.

The girls, minus Roxy, followed the boys to the fire station where Mike, Bloom's dad, had agreed to let them keep their ship, which was in a private garage under lock and key. His fellow fire fighters didn't know what was in the garage, and had no way of squeezing the information out of Mike, so they let the teenage boys in and out of the station as they pleased, sometimes offering them some of their meals from the night shift. Getting the ship in to the station unnoticed was pretty easy, seeing as everyone was asleep in their bunks, unaware that Mike was hiding a vehicle more complex than a space shuttle under the same roof. Getting it out, however, would be a problem. Not only would they have to exit in broad daylight, with the people of Gardenia walking around doing their everyday business, but the fire fighters at the station would want to say goodbye to the guys properly, and maybe attempt to get a look at the craft they'd been so secretive about.

That's when Timmy had formed his genius plan: that morning, the guys would say goodbye to the fire fighters over a hearty fry-up courtesy of the girls, and once Bloom and the others had given Roxy their farewells, Bloom would systematically start small fires around Gardenia, making sure that they would cause no harm to the public. She did this by using her mind to spark flames in various sections of Gardenia, controlling the flames so no real damage was done. She'd have to create enough fires to keep the fire fighters busy for about ten minutes or so, giving everyone enough time to launch the ship and be on their way to Magix.

By the time they reached the station, which was only a few blocks away, they found it deserted, and every engine was missing. Timmy read a passage from a survival book he and the other Specialists had studied at Red Fountain, which was the signal the boys picked for when it was safe to open the private garage and wheel the ship into the main part of the station, where the engines were usually kept. The ship itself, including the wings, covered the parking spots of four engines, and shone in the daylight. It really was a beautiful model.

"Over here Tim!" Brandon shouted from the back. He was dressed in his casual jeans and a pale green jumper which hid a white t-shirt. His hands were covered in thick, black oil from pushing the rear end of the ship. Timmy knew all too well that Brandon had accidentally allowed the engine to leak, and shuddered at the memory of the mess it made. He stole a quick glance in the direction of the private garage and discovered the floor was spotlessly clean. He let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding in and joined Brandon and Helia at the rear end of the ship.

"Everything's fine," Helia answered before Timmy had chance to ask the question. "We tested the invisibility coat inside the room and it worked perfectly, but you can never be sure it'll work in daylight until you try."

Timmy nodded in agreement and walked back to the front of the ship. The girls were admiring its splendour, mouths open in amazement. They thought the guys were exaggerating when they boasted about how great it looked. They haven't seen the half of it, Timmy thought to himself.

"If you think that's impressive, wait til you see the coat!" Sky beamed. He and Nabu met Brandon and Helia at the side of the ship as the stairs unfolded from the side, allowing them to climb aboard. They found Riven slumped in the captain's chair, asleep. They decided to leave him be and save all pranks for later – right now they were running out of time.

Sky inserted the key into the ignition of the ship and flipped a few switches at the board. He looked down at the girls to find their mouths hanging ajar. Sky flipped the switches back to how they were and grinned at the rest of his team. Nabu's invention was a success.

"Yo did you see that!" Musa gasped, still shaking her head in disbelief.

"More like did you not see it – one minute the ship was there and the next all you could see was the back of the station!" Layla replied, impressed with her fiancé's talent.

"Incredible," Tecna muttered to herself. As for the other girls, they were still left speechless.

The stairs at the side of the ship came out once again so the girls could climb aboard. They were still left stunned at the fact that the boys had actually found a way to make the ship disappear.

"Pretty impressive huh," Nabu smirked, marvelling in the girls' shock – especially Layla's. It wasn't every day he saw the love of his life looking so dazed.

"I'll say!" she replied, scanning the inside of the ship. Apart from a jagged line running around it at the far end, she couldn't see any differences.

"Timmy that was simply amazing!" Tecna cooed, giving her boyfriend a warm hug. He wound his arms around her waist and smiled smugly to himself.

"It's just a shame Roxy couldn't see it," Flora sighed, a tear sliding quietly down her cheek. "I wish she was here."

"Don't worry Flora," Helia stepped towards his girlfriend and held her close. "Just let it out, my mother always said to me that tears were good for the soul."

"That may be true, but they don't do much good for your face!" Stella cried, spotting herself in a proper mirror for the first time in hours. "Just look at my eyes! They're all red and mousey, and my make-up is all over the place!"

"Calm down sweetie, you still look as beautiful as ever," Brandon assured her. She gave him a grateful smile and wound her arms around her boyfriend's neck.

Sky pressed a strange button at the side of the ship, allowing the rear end to stretch out and reveal a dozen seats which folded out of the ship. The Specialists had modified their assigned squad ship to look less like the cheap cargo vessel it used to be before it was donated to the school, and more like a real ship.

"We all ready to launch?" Sky asked from the cockpit. Everyone sat down at the back, all except Tecna and Timmy, who joined Sky and a still sleeping Riven at the front by the control panel.

"Aye aye, captain!" Brandon called out enthusiastically. He kept his arm securely around Stella's shoulder, making sure she didn't slide away from him. She was never good with take-offs.

"Uh, anyone want the honour of waking Riven?"

"I'll do it!" Musa leapt from her seat and skipped over to where her boyfriend was napping. She whispered softly in his ear, making him stir.

"Riven," the volume of her voice raised slightly, making Riven respond with an inaudible mumble that sounded a bit like 'go away'.

"Fine, you asked for it," Musa shrugged, and she sent a faint sonic blast at his head, making him jump out of his slumber immediately.

"Wha-?" His head turned frantically in all directions of the ship, shifting his magenta spikes. "What was that for?"

"Wake up call," Musa smiled sweetly. "Can't have the captain asleep at the wheel."

"Right," Riven smirked, remembering how he demanded that he be the captain of the journey instead of Sky.

Ever since the mishap in Black Mud Swamp back in sophomore year, Riven wasn't trusted to pilot any kind of aircraft, so it took a lot of persuasion to let Sky hand over his position. Riven was thrilled, and was willing to ignore all temptations to drive the ship as fast as it would go. Instead, he turned on the engines and gently manoeuvred the vehicle out into the wide road above all the other cars, which were oblivious to the ship's existence, and flew.

The ship penetrated the atmosphere without much trouble, other than the speed slowing by quite a bit, which wasn't a problem seeing as they weren't in much of a rush to return to Magix. Faragonda sent the message over a week ago, and said to be back before the semester started, which wouldn't be for another couple of days. The fairies and Specialists had packed their things into the ship's storage unit the previous night so it wasn't necessary to stop off in their home planets on their way to Magix. Although Sky couldn't shake off the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong on his home planet of Eraklyon…

* * *

After little over an hour of flying without any trouble, Riven broke the comfortable silence in the cockpit. "Anything on your side Timmy?"

"Nope, everything's clear. How about you, Sky?"

"Huh? Oh, um yeah everything looks fine," Sky replied without actually checking the monitors.

If there really was a threat coming their way, then usually the whole ship would be able to hear it through the speakers. But Riven had shut them off before taking his nap, just in case anyone thought it would be funny to sound the alarms to wake him. He forgot all about them and trusted that Sky was keeping an eye on his screen, but the Eraklyonite was too distracted by the feeling that his kingdom was in grave danger. Little did he know that his incompetence would put himself and his friends in danger…

"What was that?" Flora gasped as the squad ship shook violently and was thrown to the left.

"Timmy?"

"Nothing on my screens Riv."

"Sky?"

"Nothing h- oh shit!" Sky cursed as he saw a red dot quickly making its way to the green triangle that represented the ship. "Coming from your right, Riven!"

Riven forgot all about the other passengers on board and pressed his foot down on an emergency pedal underneath his chair. The ship surged forward, forcing everyone to lean back in their seats. He then swerved the ship unexpectedly to the right, narrowly missing the missile that was close to hitting the flank. "That was close," he breathed.

"I wouldn't get too excited Riven, it looks like that missile did some damage to one of the engines," Brandon informed him.

"Is it still intact?"

"Yeah but-"

"Then we'll be fine," Riven assured his friend. Brandon sat back in his seat and pulled Stella onto his lap. He then tugged a seatbelt over them both and clicked it in place. "Brandon, what are you doing?"

"Just a precaution," Brandon grinned.

"Right. Sky keep an eye on your screen from now on, we can't afford-"

Another missile hit the ship when Riven was halfway through his sentence, and the ship's power started to drain.

"Hawk to port, do you read me?" Tecna shouted into a speaker to her left. She released her finger from the button that allowed her to speak and all that came out of the speaker was static. "We've lost contact."

"Try again," Riven said as patiently as he could through gritted teeth.

"Hawk to port, do you read me?" Tecna repeated into the microphone. Again, nothing but static.

"Timmy! Can you get the emergency booster up and running?" Riven asked the blond, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.

"Uh, sorry Riven but the emergency boosters have been cut off from the rest of the ship. You used them to escape the second missile."

"Fuck!" Riven slammed both fists down onto his panel, avoiding the controls. "Tecna, can we use any of the power in the mains?"

"That power's being used for lighting and what little control we have over the panels," Tecna replied in a worried tone. "If we use it, we wouldn't be able to control the ship or use the navigation system to find a safe place to land. And that power's draining – fast! I'm sorry Riven but it would be impossible."

"We can't stay floating around the universe without power!" Musa cried.

"That's right, we need a plan," Bloom stood and made her way over to Sky. "Do you think you could find a planet close enough to land on safely without using too much power?"

"The nearest planet is pretty far away, and doesn't seem to have a name… we don't even know if it's safe!"

"It's worth a shot," Brandon nodded towards his friend, encouraging him to set a course for said planet.

"Alright. Riven, turn the ship in the direction of the planet on Sky's screen, and on my say so, use the last of the ship's power to land."

"But Bloom, we'd have no way of regaining control of the ship once Riven uses its power. We won't even be able to see – are you sure you want to go through with this?"

"Positive," Bloom turned her head to address the rest of the ship's passengers. "What do you guys think?"

"I think you're crazy!"

"But she does have a point Stell," Layla argued. "We're already using up the last of the ship's power, and in a matter of minutes we'll have no choice but to crash onto some star. It's best if we head towards a planet where we can safely land the ship-"

"And make repairs so we can get the hell off!" Nabu finished. Stella sighed and the rest of the group gave the go-ahead for the plan. Before Tecna even had chance to shut off the power supply, the lights went out, and the only thing shining in the room were the emergency buttons on the panel. Riven turned the ship in the direction of the planet Sky had pointed out, and pressed his foot down on the pedal. The ship jerked forward and sped towards the planet, leaning ever so slightly to the right as the engine had shut down.


	3. Chapter 2

The ship started to build up speed, and the little power that was left was used to trigger the alarms, which lit up the room for a second before going off again, but no sound went off.

"Who turned the sound off?" Riven barked, hoping the noise would be able to reach everyone over the roaring sound of the ship shooting through space.

"Not me, I thought something was odd when the panel didn't beep before we were hit!" Sky shouted back.

"Well I didn't-" Riven stopped himself when he realise that he did. He was the one to mute the ship.

"Watch out Riven!" Tecna screamed as an asteroid came into view. Riven had no way of controlling the ship, and had to hope for the best. Thankfully the asteroid only scraped the right side of the ship, no major damage done. He hoped.

"We're going too fast!" Helia called out from the back of the ship.

"And that's my fault?"

"Did I say it was?"

"Guys!" Layla screamed. Everyone's attention turned to the left side of the ship, and they could see that the planet's gravity was pulling them towards the surface. Even if they did miraculously survive the crash, the ship would be beyond repair.

"We need to balance the ship," Timmy told everyone. "If we keep to the back of the ship, it won't go crashing beak first, and we could save the panels, and if we stay to the left then the ship will surely land the way it's supposed to – did everyone hear me?"

No one replied, but they heard Timmy loud and clear. Brandon unfastened the seatbelt and guided Stella to the left corner at the back of the ship. He then planted his hands firmly into the wall and faced Stella, ensuring that if they did crash, she'd be safe from harm. The others did the same, making their way to the very back of the ship, until Riven was the only one still seated.

"Riven!" Musa shouted, too scared to move in case she fell forward. Riven didn't answer. "Riven come on!"

"Dude, you have to get to the back of the ship!"

"I can't!"

"But Riven-"

"Trust me!" Riven knew what he was doing. There was logic in Timmy's plan, but the ship was too close to the surface for it to work. "Everyone lean into the wall!"

"Riv-"

"Do it!" he commanded. He only had one shot at this, and he had to get it right. Riven pulled the wheel towards him and started to stamp his foot on the emergency pedal underneath his chair. The others did as he said and leant against the wall, while Riven took out his frustration on the ship. _Come on you piece of crap, start!_ For a second, which was all he needed, the engine burst into life and forced the ship to tilt upwards. Riven was about to let out a sigh of relief when the belly of the ship met the surface and skidded rather quickly to a halt.

"We did it!" Tecna cried with delight. The girls ran into a hug, each of them shaking, and the boys bounded forward to pat Riven on the back for being so brave.

"You did it Riven!" Sky laughed, but he stopped as soon as he reached his friend. He was lying on the control panel, just as he was when he was sleeping not long before. "Riven?"

Brandon stopped abruptly in his tracks when he saw the horror on Sky's face. He only had to look down to see why. The right side of Riven's face had hit the control panel extremely hard, which not only bent his nose but did something horrific to his eye, which appeared to be crying blood.

"Don't tell Musa," Helia murmured, before returning to the rest of the girls acting as if everything was okay.

"Let's get off this stupid ship," Layla suggested. The rest of the girls agreed and pressed a button at the side of the ship to open up the stairs. Layla ran off the ship, followed by the other girls, all except Stella who lingered behind.

"Snookums are you coming?" Stella batted her long eyelashes at Brandon, expecting him to follow her.

"No that's okay, I just need to go over a few things with the guys so we can… uh… start repairs on the ship!"

"Oh, okay." Stella tried to hide her disappointment and failed miserably._ What just happened?_ She thought to herself.

* * *

"Everything okay Helia?"

"Hm? Yeah everything's fine Flora, I'm just checking out the damage to the engine," Helia replied, keeping his back to his girlfriend at all times. He hated lying to Flora.

"Are you sure? You seem a little tense." Flora was worried that the impact of the crash had affected Helia in some way, and she'd be devastated if something bad had happened. Even more so if he wasn't telling her.

"Yup," Helia let his fingers skim the strange dents that were moulded into the metal of the ship. They weren't ordinary missiles, there was more than one impact zone, and if they were missiles then there would be one deep dent, not lots of little ones that didn't follow a pattern. This was so odd…

"Maybe these weren't missiles at all," Tecna's voice came from behind him. Helia had no idea she was there, but when he turned around Flora was gone and the technological fairy stood in her place. "The pattern seems to match a space flare; that would explain the randomness of the dents, and how it attacked more than one place with a single hit."

"Are you sure Tecna?"

"Positive. But I followed the direction of the flare after it hit and I located the position it was fired at."

"And?"

"Well," the fairy started to blush, "it appeared that the flare came from this planet. I didn't want to say anything to alarm anyone, but I think there could be someone here who needs help."

"Who needs help?" Bloom cut in. She and the rest of the fairies were homing their way around the beaten-up engine.

"Well, the ship had the invisibility coat on at the time the ship was hit, and I recognised the pattern of the dents in the metal – they match those of a space flare, which was fired from this planet."

"So we weren't intentionally fired out of the sky!"

"Precisely, the people here had no way of knowing that they were attacking the ship that could have helped them. Although it's lucky that Riven moved the ship when he did otherwise the second and third space flares would have been enough to destroy the back half of the ship, leaving us all to perish."

"We have a lot to thank Riven for then!" Stella smiled. "Let's go see him-"

"No!" The girls all turned towards Helia, who had never raised his voice above its regular, peaceful volume. "He and the guys are, uh, looking over the ship, best to wait til later."

"Huh?" Musa bore her eyes into Helia's, looking for some kind of truth in this story. When she found none, she stormed back towards the stairs to the ship and leapt on board.

"Hey guys, is Riven-" Musa was cut short. Riven was now lying on the floor, his face paler than usual, and the right side of it stained with blood.

"Musa, please don't panic, we have everything under control," Brandon spoke slowly and carefully, doing his best not to alarm the fairy, who looked like she was going to faint.

"Under control?" Musa whispered once she found her voice. "Under control? He looks dead!" Musa covered her mouth, wishing she could take back what she said. She started to cry. "He's not dead, is he?"

"No," Nabu confirmed, "But he came close."

"Nabu!" Sky hit his friend around the head for scaring Musa further. She stepped cautiously towards the unconscious body, her hand reaching forward tentatively. She knelt down by his face, and started stroking his soft, magenta hair.

"He's going to be okay Musa," Sky assured her. "Nabu's working his healing magic right now. His brain was a little whacked up, but when he wakes up he'll have nothing but a bad migraine."

"He's going to wake up," Musa said the words aloud to make them sound real. "He's going to wake up," She repeated it enough times to make herself start to believe it. Brandon tried to gently carry her away from Riven's beaten body, but she refused to move. She carried on stroking his hair, repeating the words to herself.

Brandon stepped out of the ship for some fresh air and to take in his surroundings. He couldn't spot Helia or any of the other girls, so instead he focused on the distant horizon. The sun seemed like it was setting, though he could have sworn that it was only early afternoon when they crash landed. He'd have to ask Stella if she knew of this planet's sun patterns. He walked down the stairs and stepped onto the ground of the planet for the first time. It was as hard and sturdy as concrete, even though it appeared to be dusty mud. There were small tufts of grass sprouting out from the ground, but not a proper patch in sight. No water source either. Or shelter, other than the ship. Brandon counted the three things in his head, the things he and the others needed to survive: food, water, and shelter. So far this barren planet hadn't provided them with one of the three.

* * *

"Hello?" Bloom called out to whoever would listen. Her throat felt rough and her feet were getting sore from all of the walking. The others weren't in better shape themselves – they'd been walking for some time now, it was getting dark, and they could no longer see the ship.

"Hello! Anyone out there?" Stella shouted as loudly as she could. Even the voice of the talkative Princess Stella was getting hoarse.

"Maybe we should turn back," Flora suggested for the fifth time.

"But where is back? We seem to be completely lost," Tecna croaked. The land they had been walking on grew softer and hotter the further they went from the ship, and not long after they had set off they had found they were lost, and any attempt at walking back again only ended with them walking in circles.

"You know, if we ever find these people who shot down our ship and have made us come after them without any supplies, I'm going to kill them."

"Stella!" Flora gasped.

"What?"

"They need rescuing! It's not their fault that they shot down a ship they couldn't see, and they didn't tell us to go out into the unknown looking for them – we did it because it's the right thing to do!"

"And you know Stella, someone could have already beaten you to it," Tecna said matter-of-factly.

"Huh?"

"Killed these people. The flare was set off quite some time ago. Something or someone could have reached them before you have the chance."

"So you're saying that we're looking for people that could already be _dead_?"

"That's correct."

"And we're still walking unknown ground without weapons, water or food to rescue a bunch of people who could have been eaten by some monster? And we could be heading right towards the same monster?"

"Theoretically, yes."

"Well that's just made me feel so much better!" Stella replied sarcastically. "Hello death, here we come!"

* * *

"Anything?" The girl whipped her head round to see her boyfriend had finally returned from the thick forest, his arms filled with heavy logs. Her younger brother came behind him, doing the same.

"No such luck," the blond sighed, relaxing his tanned arms and letting the wood roll to the damp floor. The rest of the survivors of the tram crash were growing agitated – it had been hours since they used their only space flares to signal for some kind of help, and they were sure they saw something land on the planet. Surely they weren't alone?

"This is ridiculous," a gruff man growled behind them. He was in his mid-forties and had a portly belly, very little greying hair and an unshaven face. He was chosen to be the driver of the tram when the teenagers made their hasty escape from their realm, as he was the only one who knew how to drive, and the teens discovered they'd had been better off with a troll at the wheel, as this man's attitude was making them lose all hope.

"It's a pretty big planet, we'll run into them eventually," the young girl perked up.

"Doubt it. Some beasts probably got to them before they could step off the ship," the man mumbled, making sure the kids didn't hear him.

He was hiding in the back of a delivery craft on its way to Mangorta, a planet not too far from Zenith which stored all kinds of information on the magical schools of the realms, keeping track of its students. The craft made an emergency landing in the realm of Frata, which was the rival of Magix, housing the wealthier fairies, heroes, and occasional witches. It was there that some horrible force attacked the realm, and the man had to abandon his hiding place in the delivery craft and find a more suitable place to hide – preferably some kind of transportation to get him the hell out of there. By chance he stumbled upon a seemingly empty tram. He de-railed it from the tracks and drove away from Frata as fast as he could, unaware that there was a group of teenagers taking refuge in the back.

The leader of the group was a fairy with long, emerald green hair that curled at the ends, whose name was Fauna. Her younger brother, Simon, was going to start his first year at Golden Horn, Frata's school for heroics and bravery. Fauna was a junior, and her boyfriend Miran was a senior at Golden Horn, and had promised her that he'd take care of Simon. The others consisted of another fairy, six more Specialists and two sorcerers. They quickly acquainted themselves with the elderly gentleman – though 'gentle' wouldn't be the operative word – who introduced himself as Den, and set course for a planet that seemed pretty peaceful and far away from the attack in Frata. But the ship had been damaged beyond repair after it crash-landed on the planet, which was uninhabited by any kind of human or fairy, and the group was slowly running out of supplies. Four of the eight Specialists had died trying to take down a beast they were unfamiliar with in order to use its meat for food, and no one was willing to attempt anything like that again. This led them to use the space flares to find some kind of help.

"We need to find food, fast!" Simon moaned as his stomach rumbled. He ignored the hunger pains and put on a brave face.

Fauna gave her brother's arm a small squeeze and started arranging the logs into something that resembled a fire. Their side of the planet was damp, with trees towering over them, and the cold air was nipping at their skin.

"When's help gonna get here? I'm starving!" A skinny girl with thin, mousey brown hair piped up, her nasally voice upsetting what little peace remained among the group.

Anastasia, the Princess of Windar, was one of the most stuck-up, high-maintenance girls in all of the magical realms, and she didn't have a sympathetic bone in her body. She decreed not long after crashing that seeing as her title ranked above everyone else, she should have all food given directly to her. Fauna simply rolled her eyes and pretended that her friend was joking. Fauna was from a wealthy family herself, her father being one of the Dukes of Windar, so she and Simon had grown up alongside Anastasia and knew how to deal with her. But the rest of the group were growing impatient.

"Maybe we should get some sleep and wait to see what happens in the morning," Palis suggested. He was one of the sorcerers that helped out at Golden Horn, and even though he didn't necessarily teach there, he did have access to everything the professors did and was probably the most resourceful of the group.

"Good idea, I'm pooped." Miran curled up in a ball by the fire on a patch of grass, and tucked his arm under his head for support. The rest of the group rested their heads and began to drift off into the much kinder world of sleep, where the nightmares of reality didn't plague their minds.

Yet.

* * *

Tecna awoke to an eerie silence, which was unusual as she had been expecting Bloom to be going over some kind of plan of action, Stella to be fussing over something like her hair, and Layla and Flora to be working on growing some of Flora's plants, using any moisture Layla could summon from the bone-dry ground. Instead, there was nothing.

She opened one of her teal eyes, shocked to find herself in the middle of a forest, by herself. _Where are the girls? _She thought. _Where's Helia? What's going on?_ The pink-haired girl tried to stand up, but found that the furthest she could get to being upright was on her hands and knees. She was frozen in place, the only part of her body that was allowed to move was her head, which shook frantically from side to side in search of her friends. She wanted to scream, but couldn't find her voice. Her hands and knees dug into the moist, but somehow rough earth beneath her, which slowly started to break apart, forcing Tecna's body to drift to opposite sides as a small ditch opened beneath her.

Her body started to scream as her muscles were being stretched unnaturally far apart, and again she couldn't bring her body closer together into her previous kneeling position. Before the pain became unbearable, the ditch stopped opening, and fresh water started to flow through. Tecna's throat was as rough as sandpaper, and without hesitation, she ducked her head down to take a sip. The second her lips came in contact with the water, a fierce shock zapped through her body, and she surely would have fallen into the ditch if she wasn't frozen in place by some mysterious force. The electrodes sent jolts through her entire system, making her insides spasm uncontrollably.

_Okay, _Tecna thought, _first thing's first: don't touch the water. Secondly, find some way out of this mess!_ Before she could start to think of a logical solution to her current situation, Tecna's mind clouded over and an unfamiliar voice filled her head.

* * *

Musa didn't know when she finally fell asleep. She didn't know why she was no longer on the ship. She didn't know where Riven, or anyone for that matter, had gone. All she knew that she was frozen into an upright position on the edge of a cliff, leaning dangerously forward against her will, but somehow unable to fall. The tension was killing her. She was unable to call for any kind of help. She could look nowhere but down, which seemed endless. She was doomed.

* * *

Simon's entire body was numb. Even if he were able to feel his limbs he had no way of moving them. He was aware that he was buried up to his head in something so strong that it felt like concrete. Of course he knew this wasn't true. He was in some kind of nest. The long, thorny branches that curled around his head blocked most of his view, but he was sure that he was being watched by some kind of beast. Like Tecna and Musa, he couldn't find his voice and found the situation to be entirely hopeless. But the more he woke up, the more fear was replaced by confusion. What the hell was going on?

* * *

Sky was safe. Safe from any physical harm. He was in some kind of small, invisible cube – it had four walls, a bottom he was sitting on, and a top – he could see neither, but could feel them as he struggled to escape. It was useless. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't going to budge. He instead focused on what he could see, and he didn't like it one bit. He spotted Bloom tied to a pole in the centre of an unlit bonfire; similar to the one Fauna had built the previous night, only on a much greater scale. Bloom hung there, unconscious, and completely unaware that her boyfriend was watching her from above and shouting as loud as he could for her to get out of there.

"Bloom! Bloom listen to me, you have to wake up! _Wake up!_" Sky pleaded, but his only reply was the echo of his own voice. Before he could try again to wake Bloom, his mind clouded over and an unfamiliar voice entered his mind, the sound cool and unsettling.

"_Welcome, magical beings. While your attempts to escape were nothing more than amateur, I must congratulate the select few that had the brains and bravery to survive as long as they have. Now that all of you are awake, I'd like to go over the rules of this little game I've set up for you._"

The voice paused briefly to let this information sink in. A game? What kind of sick fantasy was this?

"_What? You really didn't think I would let you live while the other realms suffered, did you? You ran away like cowards, too scared to fight for your realms, and this is how you're going to pay._"

Eraklyon _was_ in danger! Sky knew he had reason to be worried on the ship!

"_I realise this might be news to some of you, but yes. The Magical Dimension has fallen, and within the next week or so all that will be left will be ruins – unless…_"

"Unless what you creep!" Sky slammed his fists on the invisible wall of the cube, his words dripping with anger and hatred. Whoever this person was, they were going to pay.

"_You play by the rules,_" the voice finished. "_There are 24 of you in total – a group of 12, a group of 10, and a pair. Only half of you will survive. Atleast one person must die each day in order for the game to work. If no one has died, I shall select a person at random and finish them off myself. You will each be faced with challenges which you must overcome in order to live. Some of you will find yourselves trapped as I speak – others will be safe from harm, and will have the pleasure of watching your loved ones suffer. You will only have control of your magic if I allow you to. You will not be able to escape the obstacles. After completing each one you will be immediately teleported to your next challenge, or to safety. Some challenges will last longer than others, and some will force you to work in teams. I suggest that the two smaller groups form an alliance against the larger one if you all want to get out alive. When only 12 of you remain, I will release my hold on you, your powers will be restored and you will be left to find your own way off this planet. If you do find a way off, I will leave you alone. For the other 12…_" the voice gave a low chuckle, "_pray that the gods have mercy on your souls._"

"This isn't fair!" Sky cried. Why should he be safe while Bloom was down there, possibly about to die? Where were the rest of his friends? What if all of them couldn't survive?

"_Let the games begin!"_


	4. Chapter 3

Just as the mysterious voice left Musa's head, the strong hold on her body that kept her from falling to her death went away just as easily, and the unprepared fairy plummeted through the air. Try as she might, Musa was unable to summon her Winx and had to extend her arms in order to grab onto a branch. She was unsuccessful, but did manage to slow her fall, and instead of being severely injured, her left ankle was twisted in an awkward direction. Ignoring the stabbing pain coursing through her foot, Musa gritted her teeth and pressed onwards, putting as much distance between her and the cliff as possible. She strained her ears to listen out for any incoming threats, but all remained eerily silent – even with Musa's unnaturally sensitive hearing.

"Hello?" Musa was sure she shouted pretty loudly, but she couldn't hear her own voice. This couldn't be happening. Her Winx aside, as the fairy of music Musa was most dependant on her hearing abilities, and if she had gone deaf, then there was only one future that lay ahead for her. Death.

* * *

"Calm yourself Tecna," Tecna seethed, "you can do this. Your body is reacting to the water as if it were a computer – the only logical thing to do would be to avoid the water at all costs,"

This proved to be easier said than done. Still bent on her hands and knees, Tecna crawled forward, digging the balls of her wrists firmly into the soil to maintain her grip. The soil was slightly damp, and gave off a series of small electric shocks, but nothing to knock her off balance. The ditch beneath her appeared to only get wider the further ahead she went, and her muscles were already screaming in pain from being stretched too far to avoid the water.

Before Tecna was sure one of her limbs would break off due to the excessive amount of pain she was enduring, her right knee slipped ever so slightly and caught her off-guard, almost causing her to fall face first into the narrow river. Thankfully the water was only mere millimetres away from contact with the tip of her nose, and Tecna was able to let out a great sigh. The voice told her that she had to escape somehow, but the ditch seemed to be expanding in width the further she travelled down it.

_Think Tecna! _She ordered her mind to obey her command, and her brain, which usually had pieces of information tumbling over one another, came to a halt. _If the width of the ditch is expanding the further I go down, then the beginning of the ditch in question must have started from one small initial point – which would be back the way I came!_

* * *

Bloom was able to open her eyes as soon as the fog was cleared from her head, and she didn't like where she was stood. It turns out she was in fact in the middle of the fire Fauna had arranged the previous night, though Bloom had no way of knowing that. The size of the fire had tripled in height and width, which made it look more like a bonfire. Her hands were tied behind her back with thick, wooden thorns that dug mercilessly into her wrists. The cuts stung, but they were nothing compared to the pain of the flames licking the tips of her toes. A fire had been lit.

_Fighting fire with fire, how ironic, _Bloom thought to herself, grinning slightly. This would be too easy. She would simply transform into her fairy self and fly away from the situation quicker than Stella could spot a sale. But it turned out that all of her magic had been drained, and the situation began to look very bleak to the redhead. And unbeknown to her, Sky was watching the horror unfold from above, incapable of helping his fiancée.

* * *

Unlike the others, Nabu was not alone. He was positioned in a high maple tree, overlooking the forest, and could see another sorcerer he recognised not far ahead of him, looking at another tree. The three of them sat in silence, observing one another, no one daring to make the first move. Nabu was perfectly balanced, prepared for anything these two threw at him. It was just a shame that he knew one of them, and that he and the newcomer would no doubt be allies and willing to destroy him.

"_Can you see him?_" Testature focused all of his attention on his friend in the tree, whose dark red robes were flowing gently in the cool breeze. He didn't want to risk blowing his cover, although it had already been done for him as Nabu could clearly see him perched in the tree, so he communicated through telepathy.

"_No,_" Palis shook his head, allowing his long navy hair to follow his robes. _"But I think he can listen in on our conversation."_

"_How do you know?" _Testature asked in a panicked voice.

"_Nabu is not stupid. He has probably already brought his mind into the conversation without us realising,_" Palis explained to his friend gently.

"_How do we find out?_"

"_We don't._"

"_So he could just attack us right now?"_

"_He could,"_ Palis nodded, _"but he won't."_

"_How do you know?"_

"_I think I'd know my own cousin, Tes," _Palis chuckled softly. He glanced quickly around the trees, but he couldn't see Nabu. "Come out Nabu! We don't want a fight!"

"How can I be sure?" Nabu grinned, floating out of his hiding spot and landing gracefully on the damp earth beneath the trees. Testature's mouth hung open in shock as he acknowledged the sorcerer. He knew who Nabu was and the power he possessed, and he knew that both his and Palis' magic combined couldn't defeat him. But Palis sounded so sure that he wasn't looking for a fight.

"Hello Nabu," Palis greeted him warmly, he too coming out of hiding. "If only we could have met in nicer circumstances."

"Indeed," Nabu agreed. "How was Tides when you last saw it?"

"The same, though I fear that it is no more, as are the other realms."

"Ah, I still don't understand what's going on." Palis wrapped his arm around his cousin's broad shoulders and led him deeper into the forest, purposefully leaving Testature behind. He knew the young, hot-headed sorcerer would try to kill Nabu as soon as he got the chance, and Palis would be damned if he would let that happen to someone he cared about so dearly.

* * *

Stella was also in a situation where she was not alone, and she was not happy about it.

_Of all the people, _she thought to herself as she marched behind the tall figure who was pompously leading the way through the desert, _of all the people I could have been on this planet and it had to be _her!

Riven could sense Stella's annoyance, but was too busy cradling his injured arm to pay attention. Stella explained to him that she had to wait for her magic to return before she could heal his arm properly, but she did her best to temporarily fix the injury. She generously donated her scarf (which was a pale pink, much to Riven's disappointment) to use as a sling. After a pretty bloody battle with two Specialists and a fairy Stella had the displeasure of knowing pretty well, she and Riven had wandered aimlessly through the desert in the hopes of stumbling across something that could help them survive. So far; nada.

"Are your powers back yet?" Riven asked for the eighth time, and instead of losing her patience with him, Stella simply shook her head so her golden hair hid her bloodied face. Thankfully it wasn't hers.

"Sorry Riven, I'm still low on Winx," she told him dismally. The pair had got off to a very rough start when they first met, and only tolerated eachother for Brandon's sake, but over the past few months Stella had come to realise that Riven was just very misunderstood, and actually proved to be a pleasant person when he put his mind to it. For example, he used an entire dictionary of curse words to insult the fairy who attacked Stella, and later assured her that if she had her powers, she could have taken down the scrawny fairy in a second.

"Anything from the others?" Again, Stella shook her head.

"I've been trying, I really have, but it's like this… energy… I don't know what it is really, but it's stopping me from contacting the girls," Stella's eyes filled with frustrated tears, but she ducked her head so Riven couldn't see. He did. "I hope they're okay."

"Me too," Riven sighed, hoping that everyone was okay. He did not just risk his life to land them here safely for some creep to fuck things up.

As if reading his thoughts, Stella said "I'll tell you if I hear anything from Musa."

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

The pair continued walking in silence, but a comfortable one, until Riven stopped in his tracks. There was something wrong. He couldn't pin-point it exactly, but he felt that something wasn't right about where they were heading…

"Stay back," Riven warned, keeping Stella close by his side.

He would never admit it to anyone, especially Brandon, but he did genuinely like the blonde fairy. She was always there to argue with when he needed to let off steam, and she never seemed to mind, which was easier on everyone else. Without warning, a dozen serpents slid out from the sand beneath them and began circling the pair, their loud hisses battling against the fierce wind. Before Riven could reach for his magenta broadsword, he found Stella had already pulled it out of his back pocket and had lunged forward to one of the bigger serpents, aiming for its head. She missed, but her failure only encouraged her to go after the others.

"Get back here you disgusting abominations!" she cried, wielding the sword dangerously above her head. No doubt that Brandon had taught her a thing or two in recklessness. But Riven was unable to comment as two of the beasts slithered at an alarmingly fast speed towards him and flung themselves at his face, bearing their long fangs. Stella blocked them using the broadsword and managed to kill them both in the process. They disappeared into nothingness and the Princess of Solaria swung the sword towards a group of four or five of the things which were encircling Riven's feet, trapping him to the spot. Stella broke up the gathering by bringing the sword down on one of the beasts, leaving the rest to scatter. Nine remained, and they did not look happy.

"Stella look out!" Riven called out, but Stella had already seen the three snake-like creatures coming towards her. These were no ordinary snakes. They were much longer and thinner, but seemed to have larger heads that were emphasised by a scaly mane. Not only that, but they could change colour, making them much harder to track in the golden sand.

"Riven!" Stella screamed after blocking the attack. Two more were prepared to leap at Riven's chest, but he was ready for them. Using a boomerang technique he learned from observing Sky, he released the boomerang in such a way that the spin was powerful enough to decapitate the beasts. He repeated the motion with two more. Only two remained.

"You take that one," Riven gestured to the beast that was digging its way into the sand, only to reappear a second later in a different location. Stella nodded and locked her honey eyes on the thing with all of the focus she could muster. She started to make a game of predicting where the beast would reappear, and started to see a pattern forming. No longer hesitating, she swung the broadsword round like a backhand in tennis and sliced the monster in half just as it rose out of the sand. With a sigh of relief, she collapsed to the ground and saw Riven smiling in approval.

"How about we take a rest?" Stella suggested. Riven nodded, and the two made their way towards a cluster of large rocks. Completely unaware that Helia was trapped in the surface.

Helia was usually a peaceful person. If you were to ask anyone who knew him well enough, they would say that there was never a time when he wasn't calm. What they didn't know was that he was claustrophobic, and right now one of his worst nightmares had come to reality. His body was wedged helplessly between two strong boulders, he could not see any light, and his chest was bruising from his hyperventilating. He was freaking out – big time.

"Did you hear something?" Stella whispered before sitting on one of the boulders. Riven raised an eyebrow. _Is she going crazy?_

"Didn't hear anything," he shrugged. But Stella would have none of it and leant in closer to the rock. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard quick, heavy breaths coming from beneath the rock.

"It's alive!" she squealed in horror. She leapt off the rock and stumbled onto the sand.

"Stella I can't-" Riven cut himself short when he thought he heard a heavy wheezing sound. "What was that?"

"I told you!" Stella huffed. Riven ignored her and pulled out his broadsword. Carefully, he wedged it into a gap between the two largest rocks and started to force the hilt down in an attempt to lift the rock. It moved slightly, but not by much.

"Try smashing the rock," Stella suggested.

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"With your sword duh," Stella twirled her wrist in the direction of his magenta broadsword. "A few swings at that thing and it's sure to crumble."

"But what if the rock's alive and we anger it? Or more of those things are readying themselves to attack?"

"Help!" The voice was incredibly faint, but unmistakable.

"Or someone's trapped," Stella gasped.

"Okay, I'll try to move the rock again. If it's someone we don't know, kill them."

"Riv-"

"Just do it Stella, it's us or them," Riven replied coldly. He was never one to believe in the sake of killing, but whoever – or whatever – was down there could be a threat if they allowed it to live. What if it reached the others? _What if it reached Musa?_

"Okay," Stella said uneasily. She kept her eyes steady on the rock, and her right hand secured to her back pocket, ready to throw a narrow dagger Riven gave her if she ever needed to protect herself.

"One," Riven slid the tip of his broadsword back into the gap. "Two," he tightened his grip on the hilt, ready to press his full weight on it in order for the boulder to roll onto the sand. "Three!"

His plan worked, but instead of monsters or enemies down in the gap, something else took Riven by surprise more than the other two ever could. He'd found Helia.

"Helia!" Riven shouted in delight, genuinely happy that another one of his friends was okay. He jumped down into the pit to check on Helia, who had slumped to the hard ground. Ignoring the still present pain in his arm, Riven hugged Helia. And the only person Riven had ever hugged was Musa.

"Hey," Helia croaked, squinting his cobalt eyes to adjust to the sudden light. A shadow was cast over the pair, and before Helia could react the figure climbed cautiously into the pit, and he heard them comment on how filthy it was and what all the dirt would do to her nails.

"Honestly, this planet couldn't be more backwards! The one time the ground becomes moist and it's when I'm trying to find my way into a stupid-"

"Stella!"

"Helia!" Stella beamed. "It is you! I wondered what Riven said up there! Are you okay? How'd you get down here? Have you been here long? Are you hurt? Is there anyone else?"

Helia wasn't quite sure which of the questions he should answer so he simply nodded his head and grinned.

"C'mon bro, let's get you back up there," Riven smiled, dragging his friend out of the deep pit. Stella followed behind, making sure neither of them fell back down. They made it back to the surface without any problems and sunk back into the sand. Before either of them had time to relax, their vision went dark and they could feel themselves being transported elsewhere.

* * *

Tecna had escaped not long before, and as soon as she was able to stand upright again she was teleported the same way Stella, Riven and Helia were to a spot in the forest close to where the tram survivalists had crashed. Uncertain of what her next move should be, she decided it was best to stay put. But doubt was washing over her, and she began to question whether to change her motive when a bright light appeared before her eyes and three figures stepped out. She shielded her eyes and readied herself for an attack when she identified the three figures as her friends.

"Tecna!" Stella cried, stumbling towards her friend. She didn't care if one of her heels had broken in the process, she was too happy to see Tecna to take notice.

"Stella!" Tecna shouted back, a smile breaking across her face. This was the first good thing to happen to her since she woke up this morning. But the closer Stella came, the more Tecna could take in her appearance. The fairy still looked as stunning as ever, but her entire face and chest was stained with a dried liquid that looked a lot like blood, and her blonde hair was fairly matted with the stuff. "What happened to you? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Stella suddenly remembered the blood on her body. "Oh, that! Don't worry, it's not mine. Riven fought off two Specialists at the same time, and one of them ran away with a hideous cut on his arm. It was amazing! He was so brave!"

Riven might be a changed man from his dark days of sophomore year, but he hadn't lost his ego, and Stella just gave it a huge boost.

"Oh my! Are you okay Riven?"

"I'm fine, nothing I can't handle," Riven smirked.

"What about you Helia?"

"No physical damage," Helia replied, "but the mental scars are etched up here for life."

"What do you mean?"

"Well I woke up in-"

"Bloom!" Stella screamed, her honey eyes enlarging with horror as Sky carried the blackened fairy out into the clearing.

"Oh gods!" Tecna shrieked at the sight of her friend. Her long, luscious red hair had been singed at the ends and was covered in black soot, but that was the least of her worries. Her boots had been completely destroyed and horrible red blisters covered her feet. Her wrists were a bloodied mess after struggling out of the thorns that tied her to the pole. It was worth it though – she escaped with her life. Barely.

"Is she okay?" Helia pressed, looking at Sky for answers. He nodded his head slowly.

"I saw the whole thing," Sky said shakily. He set Bloom down carefully on a soft patch of ground then sat next to a great tree, running a hand worriedly through his blond hair. "I was trapped in some kind of invisible cube in the air, just hanging there, and I saw the flames rise, and she wouldn't stop screaming, and her hands… there was so much blood…" Sky started to cry at the memory, but quickly pulled himself back together to finish his story. "As soon as she made it out of the fire, she collapsed, and I was teleported next to her, so I did the only thing I thought was sensible and I carried her away from that thing as fast as I could. I wasn't sure where I was going until I heard Stella," he gave the blonde a small smile, "so I started walking here. It didn't take long."

Everyone was silent, allowing the information to sink in. The worst that happened to Stella was being thrown around like a rag doll by a fairy she knew too well, which wasn't very fair as only one of the two had their powers. But nothing compared to this. Just like Tecna, Bloom's own strengths had been turned into her weakness, and she almost died because of it.

Thankfully another important person in Stella's life returned before she could panic about anyone else.

"Brandon!" Stella smiled, running full-pelt towards her boyfriend, whose hands were bloodied from a large gash on his thigh. He ignored the pain and pulled her into a tight embrace, taking in the sweet smell of his girlfriend, which was mixed with the scent of blood.

"Are you hurt?" Brandon held her at arms length, checking her body for the source of injury. Stella had never seen him so wound-up in his life.

"Um, no, this isn't mine. Riven cut open the arm of this guy and-"

"Are you guys hurt?" Brandon cut off Stella and directed the question to the three Specialists. They shook their heads, and Brandon jerked his head behind him. "Stella, sweetie," Brandon gripped her shoulders and tried to keep his voice as steady as possible, "I'll be right back. I'm sorry this isn't how you'd want your boyfriend to greet you after a battle, but this is important." Stella nodded slowly to show she understood, and Brandon kissed her softly on the cheek. "It won't take long, I promise."

"What's going on?" Riven asked suspiciously once the four of them had walked away from the camp.

"Timmy's in trouble. Musa's with him now but they won't hold out long," Brandon answered formally. Riven and Sky exchanged worried glances – not just because of the news that their friends were in trouble, but at the serious tone in Brandon's voice. As the jokey one of the group, Brandon was never in a foul or stern mood, and this sudden change in personality worried his friends greatly. But when they rounded a corner of trees, they saw why.

Musa was lucky she showed up when she did. Even if she couldn't hear, she could sense the danger nearby, and headed straight for it, to find Brandon and Timmy fighting off a witch and two Specialists – the older one strong and powerful, the younger one slightly mediocre with twigs in his hair. Brandon was left to the stronger one, while Timmy used his knowledge to trap the younger boy. He had forgotten all about the witch, who still had her powers, and a blast of dark energy was fired in Timmy's direction. Without a second thought, Musa leapt infront of him and used her body to shield his. The dark magic was counteracted by the dark magic already inside Musa, which had blocked off her hearing, and the two disappeared, allowing Musa to hear again. The witch wasn't as surprised as Musa was, and took the opportunity to use her powers to throw the pair from one tree to the other, resulting in many broken bones, and a broken pair of glasses. Musa was better coordinated than Timmy and used her feet to push off the trees before her body came into full contact with it, whereas Timmy's body was thrown carelessly around the forest. The witch eventually grew bored and let them both fall. She then vanished along with the two Specialists, leaving Brandon to tend to his two friends, one of which was dying.

"Oh shit," Sky muttered when he saw Timmy's mangled body lying in a heap on the floor. Musa was in Winx mode and was doing her best to treat the broken bones, but everyone knew deep down that the only fairy in the group capable of fully healing someone was Flora, who still hadn't shown up.

"He'll be okay," Musa said faintly to the others without taking her gaze off of Timmy's soft face. His body caved in where it shouldn't, and bright purple bruises were blossoming on his chest. Musa had only suffered a few cuts and bruises, but Timmy's condition was much more serious.

"What happened?" Helia asked.

"I'll explain later, let's just get these two back to Stella and the others." Brandon lifted Timmy's battered body over his shoulder, and Riven held out his hand to help Musa.

"Are you okay?" Riven asked in a soothing voice. Musa was taken aback. She'd never heard Riven speak in such a tender way.

"I guess," she shrugged, then nestled her head close into his chest. She was going to take advantage of this nicer Riven. "I was just so worried."

"You would have been fine." Riven slid his hand down Musa's back from her shoulder to her waist. He'd never been this intimate in public before, that was Brandon's job, but he almost lost her when the ship crashed, and he almost lost her today, so he decided from here on out he was going to prove to Musa just how much he cared about her. But to the guys, this stuff just looked like baby steps.

"Is that…" Brandon's body stiffened, waiting for her to cry out his name, the name of the boy he was unable to save. "Timmy!"

Stella grabbed Tecna's arm before she could charge forward, but Tecna was having none of it, and scratched Stella's hand ferociously to make her let go. She wouldn't, so Tecna abandoned all logic and sank to the ground and cried. Her shoulders shook from the force of her sobs, and the tears fell freely from her beautiful teal eyes. No one had ever seen Tecna so out of order.

"Is Flora here?" Sky asked, scanning the area himself to see if the flower fairy had indeed returned. She hadn't. Stella put her arm supportively around Tecna and mumbled some words of encouragement, but it was no use. The technological fairy was impossible to communicate with.

"I'm so, so sorry Tecna," Brandon apologised sincerely, his own brown eyes brimming with tears. Timmy had been like a little brother to him. Hell, he had to all of the guys, and seeing their friend like this was going to haunt them forever, as was the grief in Tecna's cries, unless Timmy could be helped.

"Musa! Your Winx!" Stella's face brightened up when she saw her friend in her full Winx form.

"Stell now isn't the time for us to-"

"Don't' you see?" A bright flash of light hid the blonde for a second, and she reappeared in her Winx form. "If we combine our magic, we could save Timmy with a healing spell! He'll be fine!"

"I'm not too sure Stella," Musa sighed heavily. She badly wanted to believe that her friend's idea would work, but a regular healing spell had little to no effect on this dark magic. Their best hope was Flora, who remained absent.

"We have to try," Stella said determinedly. She held out a hand to Tecna, who took it gratefully, and she too transformed. The three fairies held hands and focused all of their magical energy into creating a ball of white light. The light hung over Timmy for a few short seconds before it was absorbed by the unconscious teen, who slowly started to come around.

"It… worked?" Tecna asked uncertainly. Her boyfriend's twitching body was all the proof she needed, and the second his eyes flashed open, Tecna broke away from her friends and clumsily landed by Timmy's side, giggling uncontrollably.

"That kind of magic won't last long," Helia warned them. "It should hold out for another hour or so."

"That's good enough for me," Tecna smiled happily, cradling her boyfriend's tender body in her arms. "Flora will be here soon, I'm sure of it."


	5. Chapter 4

Den collapsed on the ground the second he had landed. The hot sand scolded his skin but he didn't care. That fight had taken the life out of him, and he was quite happy to lie here and die.

"Den?" Simon's confused voice drifted over to the overweight man panting on the ground.

"It's him alright," a Specialist called Chris confirmed. He had dark brown hair swept to one side and away from his dark green eyes. His hands were still raw from fighting that guy from Red Fountain, and Simon had been next to no help. Even though Chris was top in his class back at Golden Horn, the senior had been defeated by the stupid brunette with the long bangs. He was just glad that he'd convinced that witch to become his ally, or he'd be dead by now.

"I don't believe we've met," a cool voice came from Den's side. He was too tired to turn his body to face her, so she had the pleasure of using her power to lift his body and throw him to the ground on his back. He looked up warily at a tall, pale figure with cropped violet hair. "I'm Cathy, I'm a witch at Lightning Cavern."

"Den," the man replied casually. "Undercover unicorn."

"Well if the belly fits," Simon snorted. Den glared at him.

"Don't Simon," Miran warned as he tied a thick piece of cloth over the wound on his arm. The burgundy-haired bastard that sliced it open did a good job too. If the wound became infected, which would be pretty likely, he'd have no choice but to amputate his arm.

"You still touchy over that Red Fountain savage?" Valium smirked. He remembered how fast he moved around them, how he managed to get his broadsword in whenever he could yet avoided their attacks. Valium got lucky when his hammer hit his arm, and the snap was unmistakable. But that still didn't seem to stop the Red Fountain Specialist.

"The guy was a monster."

"Hm," Valium agreed. He was in the same year as Miran and Chris at Golden Horn, and the trio had been through a lot together. They didn't know the four other Specialists too well, so they couldn't exactly grieve when they were taken by that beast, but it was a shame to lose a fellow Specialist from their school.

"I don't see why we're still hanging around," Anastasia spoke up.

She'd been quiet ever since her fight with the blonde she knew so well. Princess Stella of Solaria. One of the universes favourite heirs to the throne. She had the nerve to mix with commoners – the nerve to _date _one – and everyone still loved her. Anastasia remembered going to elementary school with Stella, how they'd been friends before Stella's parents got divorced. That's when Stella started to gain weight and look all gross, and Anastasia couldn't be friends with someone like that, no matter what their rank. But then she became beautiful, so beautiful that princes from all over the magical realms courted her, hoping that they'd be lucky enough to date her. Anastasia had never been courted. And to add insult to injury, the same Stella who could have anyone she wanted chose a _squire! _It was disgusting! But for the first time in a while, Anastasia had the upper hand. She had her Winx, while Stella was totally powerless, and that bimbo still managed to defeat her without so much as messing her hair!

"What do you propose we do, look for them?" Miran asked sarcastically, but instantly regretted it when he saw the vengeful look on Anastasia's face. He'd never liked Anastasia, hardly anyone did, but he'd come to know her pretty well through Fauna. And the look on her face was unmistakable.

"Why not? They're injured. Vulnerable. We can take them out."

"But we all got teleported to the same place, what if the others are teleported here too and we were gone?" Miran argued. He couldn't leave Fauna behind.

"That's a good point, we must-" The rest of Chris's sentence was cut off when he saw a bright light appear in the distance, and a figure stepping out of it.

"Palis? Where's Testature?" Chris pressed, wanting to know why his friend wasn't with him.

"He's dead."

"What?" everyone except Den and Cathy gasped.

"Look on the bright side," Palis shrugged, "that's one down, so there'll be no random killings today."

"You heartless prick!" Chris seethed. "He was my friend!"

"And mine," Palis held up his hand patiently, "but there's nothing we could have done. It was his fault."

"You mean he purposely let someone kill him?"

"No, I mean I warned him about the barrier yet he ran right into it," Palis lied. He wasn't going to tell these people how he really died. He didn't know them that well, and he didn't trust them, nor they with him. Palis thought it was safer to keep to himself, as the only ones in this group that weren't so on edge were Simon, who was completely clueless half of the time, and Den, who was too lazy to pick an argument.

"Oh," Chris sat down carefully and held his head in his hands. "Well who's left to return?"

"Fauna and Chelsea," Miran counted them off on his hand. Those two plus the ones who made it here added up to 10.

"And where do you suppose they are?" Simon asked curiously. His sister had been gone for quite some time.

"They can't have been safe, or they would have come back with the person they were watching," Cathy mused, thinking of the possibilities. "How many of the other team are left?"

"We fought two," Anastasia told her.

"We fought three," Simon added.

"I fought two also," Palis informed them.

"Well that's seven…" Cathy counted them on her fingers. "Seven of twelve. Did you kill any?"

"No," Palis answered. "They bolted." Another lie.

"Same here," Miran lied also. It was actually he and Valium who ran, but he'd sooner die than admit that, and so would Valium. He was hoping Anastasia wouldn't rat them out to be cowards, and she didn't in case they brought up her defeat to a powerless fairy.

"Not sure, one of them could have died," Chris pondered as he thought back to the nerd crumpled on the ground. Even though he was supposed to hate him, he felt bad for the guy. He never saw it coming and he had to admit that Cathy's witchy sadism took it a bit too far. The poor guy just lay there, bones in all the wrong places, helpless on the forest floor…

_No, _Chris thought firmly to himself. _They want to kill you, you have to protect yourself. Kill as many of them as possible and you'll survive._ This was the common thought shared between all minds in the group, and before anyone could take the conversation further, another light broke out not far away and only one figure came forward, and by the look on her face they knew that the last person they were waiting for would not return.

* * *

"Flora!" Tecna was the first to greet the flower fairy, though not in the way Flora had hoped. Tecna gripped her hand tightly and pulled her forward towards Timmy, who was slumped against a tree trunk, holding on for dear life.

"Oh my," Flora gasped.

She transformed instantly and tended to the crumpled body of the youth. She sprinkled some of her special fairy dust on Timmy's body, and colour rose to his cheeks. Slowly, he sat up straight and began to flex his limbs, making sure everything was in working order.

"Feeling better Timmy?" she asked sweetly. Timmy nodded enthusiastically and pulled Flora into an unexpected hug. She returned it carefully, avoiding his bruises, and then stood to greet the rest of her friends. She did a quick head count and realised that two of their party was missing.

"Flora we hate to bother you, especially after you've come from the gods-know-where, but we need your help to make sure Bloom's okay," Sky pressed. He hadn't left Bloom's side after he realised Timmy was awake again, and although the fairy was still breathing, he was concerned about how much of the black soot had made it to her lungs. Stella had already taken care of her physical appearance, healing all wounds and getting rid of the scars and dirt, but no one knew why Bloom hadn't woken up yet. Flora made her way over to her friend and felt her pulse. Then she turned to Sky and gave him a warm smile.

"She's just sleepy, the smoke from a burning shubadum tree makes people drift off into a sweet sleep. She'll be perfectly fine."

"A shubadum tree?"

"They're very rare," Helia answered for Flora. "They're only found on the most secluded planets surrounded by various kinds of forestation to protect itself. They're very clever plants, you know."

"I can see someone took a leaf out of Flora's book," Brandon made an attempt at a joke, but no one was in the mood.

"I thought it was funny snookums," Stella smiled up at Brandon, who hadn't stopped cuddling her for the past hour as a way to say he was sorry for the crappy greeting.

"But you didn't laugh…"

"Now's not the time, Brandon. We're still worried about Nabu and Layla."

"That's why I'm making jokes, you know, to ease the tension," Brandon sighed. This was his way of putting up barriers when he was worried. He'd crack a few jokes to make the situation a little lighter. It wasn't much different to how Stella would always try to look her best to hide her insecurities. But Brandon couldn't see any reason for Stella to be insecure – in his eyes she was simply perfect.

"What's happened to Nabu and Layla?" Flora asked as she perched herself on Helia's knee. He lovingly wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder. He'd missed her.

"They still haven't returned from… well I don't know where really," Musa gave a small smile. She and Riven were sat side by side, their arms occasionally brushing up against eachother, but that was it. After walking back to the clearing not much had happened between the pair, and Musa was beginning to wonder if Riven's affectionate side on the way back was just a one-off.

"Where have you been, Flora?" Helia murmured into her shoulder.

"In my own personal version of hell," Flora shuddered. "I was in a clearing similar to this one, only much larger, and I could hear Rose calling out for help, but whenever I reached the place where I heard her voice, it shifted to somewhere else. I knew deep inside it wasn't real, but I can't help but worry about what's happening in Linphea…" A silent tear slid down the fairy's cheek when she remembered her younger sister's sweet, innocent face. She hadn't seen Rose in months, and it occurred to her when she was searching for her in the clearing that she might never see her again.

"I was in a personal hell too," Tecna confessed. She hadn't gotten round to telling the group about the ditch, so she took the opportunity to inform them in great detail about how her entire body felt like an electronic device, only with the ability to feel pain. Musa then told them about her encounter in the forest where she couldn't hear, and how she nearly went into a blind panic before she met up with Timmy and Brandon, and Helia admitted he had a fear of tight spaces.

"I really thought I was going to die," Helia told them earnestly, "but then the rock rolled away from me and I was free."

A bright light flashed in the centre of the clearing and two familiar figures stepped out, hand in hand. Layla looked exhausted, but Nabu appeared to have woken from a fresh power nap.

"See, I told you they were still alive!"

"I never doubted you sweetie," Nabu beamed. "But it's unnatural for a fairy to be able to sense another person's well-being."

"Not when you love them," Layla corrected. She rarely told the Winx girls how much she cared about them and valued their friendship, but given the circumstances she saw no harm in letting them know how much they meant to her.

"Glad you're back bro," Riven smirked at Nabu, who reflected his friend's expression.

"So what happened?"

"Well Nabu saw his cousin," Layla started, pausing briefly for the group to comment quickly.

"Yes, what a shock, the sorcerer has a family," Nabu chuckled. "Anyhow, I was talking with Palis, completely unaware that Layla was above me eavesdropping on the conversation, when a young sorcerer Palis was familiar with tailed me to a barrier that would have killed me. He tried to negotiate, to bring me to his group, and when I refused he snapped-"

"And so did the barrier holding me," Layla grinned. "So I jumped on this hot-head before he could murder my fiancé, and he had the nerve to try and flip me into the barrier!"

"But of course I would never let that happen," Nabu butted in, "so Palis and I dragged the young man aside for a quick talk when he kicked me in the chest and ran head-first towards Layla-"

"A rookie mistake, because I saw it coming and dodged out of the way before he could ram me into the barrier-"

"But our friend wasn't as fortunate as Layla, and he died on the spot," Nabu finished.

"Your cousin? You saw your cousin?"

"Sadly yes," Nabu's face drooped slightly. He was very fond of Palis. When they were younger, and had started to gain some control over their powers, they'd hide under the dining table and scare the cook by making the food float around the kitchen, and on one occasion managed to make a turkey dance.

"What did you talk about?"

"I asked him about what happened on Tides, and he said that it was fine when he left for Golden Horn, but once he arrived in Frata, the whole realm was under attack," Nabu quoted his cousin. "The people were turning on one another, like some dark energy had control over them and their magic, so Palis stayed on the tram that had taken him to Frata along with a small group of friends. Sadly some of them had gotten off the tram and were hit by the dark energy instantly.

"He told me that a man called Den drove them out there but crashed the tram beyond repair. He said he came with eight Golden Horn Specialists, Den, the younger sorcerer and two fairies. Four of the Specialists died on the first day on the planet, the day we crashed, when they tried to hunt down one of the monsters."

"But that would make them a group of nine… didn't the voice say they were a group of ten?" Timmy asked, remembering what the voice in his head had said about two groups forming an alliance to defeat theirs.

"Palis wondered why that was too, unless one of the Specialists survived – but one of the guys who came back alive, a guy called Miran, told them that there was no way that could have happened because they'd all been decapitated."

"So who's the pair, if that's the group of ten? Or nine, depending on how you look at it," Sky pondered.

"Witches," Brandon answered. "One of them was with two Specialists, and attacked Timmy and Musa."

"That answers one thing then," Bloom croaked. Everyone turned their heads to find the redhead sitting upright with her knees pulled to her chest.

"That answers what, Bloom?"

"Witches aren't behind this attack on the realms – witches don't go against witches," Bloom told them factually. "Which begs the question: what is this dark energy, and why is it destroying the realms?"


	6. Chapter 5

**Hey guys, sorry it's taken me so long to update but I've been a little preoccupied. Don't worry, I have three new chapters ready - here's the first. Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

No one caught a wink of sleep that night. They hardly dared to blink in case they were dragged away from their loved ones. As a precaution the Winx girls huddled together under a large tree while the Specialists talked quietly by the fire.

"What do you think will happen next?"

"Not sure," Timmy said, "but I'm glad that we're safe for now."

"Do you think this will be one of the group challenges? You know, like both groups are now together to fight against one another?"

"It wouldn't be very fair, since the other group lost a member," Nabu commented. He remembered how the body of the young sorcerer frazzled on contact with the barrier before imploding, leaving not as much as a drop of blood behind.

"No random killings today then," Riven muttered.

"How do you think the girls are taking it?" Brandon asked, his brown eyes focusing on Stella, who was silently weeping next to Musa.

"Not too well," Helia confessed. "Tecna of all people broke down when she saw Timmy-"

"Don't," Brandon warned. He wanted to forget all about how Timmy's body looked after the witch attack, how Brandon couldn't help…

"It wasn't your fault Brandon," Timmy smiled at his friend. "If it wasn't for your excellent combat skills Musa and I wouldn't have made it out alive."

"But what if we're separated again? What if we're trapped in our worst fantasies like Musa, Flora, Helia and Tecna were?" Brandon yelled, capturing the attention of the fairies. Stella wiped her eyes and made her way over, smoothing her arms over Brandon's shoulders.

"Sweetie?" Stella asked softly, her gentle breath tickling Brandon's ear. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine sunshine," Brandon gave her a half-hearted smile before pulling her onto his knee. She rested her head on his chest and allowed him to run his dirty fingers through her matted blonde hair.

"Thank you for saving me Stella," Helia locked his eyes on the princess.

"Oh it was nothing," Stella replied modestly. "It was Riven who got you out of there."

"Can you stop acting like I'm the big hero?" Riven snapped.

He then stood up and stormed to the opposite side of the camp, his fists clenched tightly by his sides. _The hero… _Riven thought to himself. _I'm no hero. It's my fault we're in this mess. I'm the one who shut off the alarms. I'm the one who wasted the back-up engine. I'm the one who crashed us on this stupid fucking planet – hell, it would have been better if I let us crash properly. We'd be better off if we were dead…_

"Riven?" His head whipped round at the sound of his name, and he found Musa shifting her feet awkwardly behind him. Her cheeks were rounder than usual and her dark, twinkling eyes were dull and red from crying.

"Just leave me alone," Riven sighed.

He didn't want to hurt Musa. That was the last thing he wanted to do. But he'd caused enough trouble, and taking his anger out on her would be the last straw. But Musa couldn't read minds and didn't understand what was going through her boyfriend's head, so of course she took offense to what he said and ran back to her friends, fresh tears filling her eyes.

"W-why does he h-have to be such… such a… j-jerk!" Musa sobbed.

She had Bloom on one side and Layla on the other, each of them doing their best to comfort their friend. Stella was still trying to get intimate with Brandon, who ever since the crash seemed like a closed book, and Tecna wanted to spend as much time with Timmy as possible after the scare earlier.

"It's in his genetic make-up – male plus good looks plus ego equals Riven," Layla explained unhelpfully. Bloom glared at her.

"Whatever it is, it's not your fault Musa," Bloom assured her.

"I know, but he goes off into these random moods and he m-makes it seem like it's all m-my fault!" Musa wailed. She'd never been this open about her relationship with Riven, but if they were going to die soon on a foreign planet she atleast wanted to die with an explanation as to why her boyfriend was acting like a dick.

"What's wrong sweetie?" Flora pushed aside a bush next to Layla so she could step back into the clearing. She and Helia had been searching for some edible plants, but so far they hadn't found any.

"Boyfriend troubles," Layla told her. Flora didn't need further explanation.

"I just saw Riven talking with Nabu and Sky, it looked like a pretty serious conversation…"

"Do you know what they were saying?" Bloom asked, hoping to get some kind of clue to why Riven was acting up once again.

"Oh no," Flora shook her head so her long brown hair wafted gently from side to side. "I'm not one to eavesdrop."

"Well I'm not past it." Layla jumped up and looked at Bloom, signifying that she follow. The redhead obeyed and followed her friend the way Flora had just come, leaving Musa to sob in the comfort of the warm-hearted flower fairy's arms.

"I think they're this way," Bloom mouthed, pointing to her left. Layla nodded and the pair stepped silently further into the forest in the direction of faint voices.

"…can't be far off. I can sense that blonde bitch is nearby." An unfamiliar voice came from the other side of a cluster of narrow trees. Thankfully they were so close together that they hid Bloom and Layla.

"We can't risk anything, what if it's a group of those monsters?" another unfamiliar voice replied. Both belonged to females. Bloom stole a quick glance through a small gap between two trees and spotted a girl with long, green hair talking to another in full Winx form, who was rail thin and did not look happy. Layla found another gap lower down, so she had to crouch, and accompanying the two girls were five guys, one who she identified as Palis.

"We have to get back!" Layla whispered. Palis could sense the two fairies nearby, but thought it best not to alert the rest of his group. He didn't want them to capture Nabu, or Layla. He'd met her briefly before Testature died and he must admit that he liked her, and was glad that the princess had chosen his cousin.

"Wait…" Bloom pressed her blue eyes closer to the gap in the trees to get a better look, and she saw a tall man in deep red robes giving her a small shake of his head.

"Bloom we have to go!" Layla tugged the sleeve of her friend's shirt, and this time Bloom followed her friend back to the clearing. Thankfully all members of their party had returned.

"We have company," Bloom alerted them quietly. No more needed to be said. All of the girls changed into their Winx form, and the boys tore off their regular clothes to reveal their hidden Red Fountain uniforms. The girls shrunk their outfits so they could store them in their Charmix pouches, and readied themselves for battle. They didn't have to wait long.

A heel of oblivion curse caused the ground to shake madly, and while the group were distracted, a witch floated to the ground. Timmy recognised her pointed face and froze in horror, but Musa had no trouble expressing her anger.

"It's her!" Musa cried out, sending a powerful sonic blast in the witch's direction. She wasn't fast enough and was thrown backwards into a tall oak. Two fairies in full Winx loomed above her head, prepared to attack.

"Nice to see you again, Stella," Anastasia cackled.

"After I kicked your butt _without _magic, you still think you can beat me?" Stella grinned. She fluttered stylishly into the air. "I don't think so! Solar wind!"

The two fairies and the witch were sucked into a heated whirl before being flung out again, knocking down a Golden Horn Specialist when they landed. Fauna dusted herself off before flying head-first into Bloom, dragging the redheaded fairy behind her and throwing her into a nearby tree.

"Bloom!" Sky shouted, rushing to the aid of his fiancée.

Halfway towards her, something fierce stabbed him in the back of the leg and pulled him to the ground. He twisted his leg and saw that two metal hooks had been latched into his skin by a special gun he hadn't seen before. A bronze-haired Specialist, who the other group knew to be Valium, jerked the gun towards him and carted Sky along with it. Riven used his broadsword to slice the metal wire that was attached to both the gun and the hooks, and went straight in to attack the Specialist.

"Flora look out!" Helia shouted as Cathy swirled her hand above Flora's head, almost choking her with the dark powder that was falling from her palm. Flora flew away from it and produced an ivy wrap to encase the witch. She then focused her attention on Miran, who was about to stab Flora in the back with a dagger, but was swept off his feet by Helia's cable gauntlets which had wound their way around his ankles.

"Chris! Simon! Some help here!"

"One sec Miran!" Simon shouted back as he was trying to fight his way out of Tecna's world wide web net.

"Miran!" Fauna shrieked when she saw her boyfriend tied up on the floor. Helia simply untied the gauntlets from his glove so he could help the others fight, but Miran was still unable to move.

"Fauna! Help!" Miran called out desperately. He could see the Specialist he'd fought earlier alongside Valium, and he was absolutely ruthless. So was the brunette with the bangs swept over his right eye, and the blond with a bleeding calf wielding a blue broadsword. He spotted another Red Fountain Specialist with glasses and strawberry blond hair messing around with a small device. He figured he'd be the easiest target.

* * *

"Did you miss me, Annie?" Stella taunted, circling her opponent in the air.

"I must have missed seeing the rest of you, last time I checked you resembled a beach ball," Anastasia retorted. Stella laughed.

"Oh please! Atleast I had a figure – I bet you've lost weight from the last time I saw you!"

"Better than being stuck with your huge butt. With a butt that size you'd block out all the suns of Solaria-"

"Sun burst!" Stella released a ball of sunlight and aimed at Anastasia's chest. The attack hit the target and Anastasia spiralled down to the ground and instantly transformed back into her regular clothes.

"You stupid bimbo!"

"Atleast I'm not stupid enough to get hit by an attack like that," Stella smiled triumphantly. She noticed a green-haired fairy burning her eyes into her, and Stella spun around just in time to avoid an attack.

"She's my best friend!" Fauna screamed.

"And that's mine." Bloom's steely voice froze the green-haired fairy to the spot. Bloom's entire body was shaking with rage, and her blue eyes were blazing with the fury of the Dragon Fire. Fauna took a panicked step back, but Bloom had already cast a fire wall around her and a few of her friends, trapping them in the fierce flames.

"You show them Bloom!" Stella cheered. She landed gracefully next to Bloom and the pair used their magic to make the heated conditions unbearable. They then changed back into their regular outfits and were about to head for the others when a strong arm pulled Stella towards them.

"The Princess of Solaria…" Chris licked his lips greedily. He remembered a few years back, before the fairy was due to return to Alfea to repeat freshmen year, how she'd refused his proposal. Since the two of them were heirs to the throne, a marriage easily could have been arranged, but King Radius wanted his daughter to choose for herself. "You're looking as delicious as ever."

"Get off me!" Stella cried out in alarm. This didn't go unnoticed by Brandon, who left the Red Fountain Specialists and the other members of the Winx Club to help his girlfriend. He came to a halt when he recognised his face.

"_You?_" Brandon ground his teeth together. This was the same bastard he'd fought in the clearing when Timmy was attacked. "Get your hands off my Stella!" Brandon ordered.

"And what happens if I don't?" Chris purred, letting his slimy lips edge closer to Stella's neck, one of Brandon's favourite places to kiss.

"You don't want to find out, buddy." Brandon glared, his voice hard and serious. "Let her go, or I will kill you."

Chris was taken aback by the venom in his voice, and released the princess immediately. That was no empty threat.

"Brandon," Stella whimpered, winding her arms around her boyfriend's waist. He held her tightly against his body, pressing his frame against hers and holding it there to show Chris just who she belonged to. The two were teleported to the part of the desert where Helia had been found, and were joined by the other members of their group.

"What just happened?" Tecna panted, still unable to comprehend the events that had unfolded in the clearing.

"We were ambushed," Timmy answered.

"But how did they know where we were?" Riven demanded.

He'd been jumped for the second time that day, but this time by two Golden Horn Specialists and a big brute that sat on him until almost all of the air had been forced out of his lungs. He was lucky that the man shifted his weight to get a more comfortable position, as that's when Riven kicked him off and ran to help his friends. Luckily no one was hurt from the surprise attack, other than Sky, who still had two deep holes in his legs from the hooks, and Brandon, whose wound on his thigh had reopened.

"That could be my fault," Timmy confessed. "That witch could have put a tracking spell on me."

"Then what should we do, leave Timmy behind?" Riven suggested.

"I hope you're joking Riven," Tecna growled, her teal eyes narrowing into slits.

"No, I'm not. If the witch can track him then none of us are safe, and I didn't risk my life to crash that ship so we could all die."

"So we should save us all! Including Timmy!" Bloom argued.

"Fine, you guys sit around with the breathing GPS and wait for them to attack again. I'm getting out of here."

"Riven wait!"

"Musa," Riven spun round on the spot, and stared intently into his girlfriend eyes. "Don't." And with that, Riven walked off into the distance, leaving his friends, dazed and upset behind him.

Musa didn't sleep well that night. Her dreams were bombarded with thoughts of Riven being hurt in every possible way, and all of the good times they'd spent together. She hated him for it. _Why do you have to be so complicated?_

She eventually woke to find herself lying in the air above a blank area of desert. Tecna and Bloom were rousing from sleep, and sat up to say good morning, when they realised where they were.

"What is this?" Tecna pawed the walls of the cube she and her friends were trapped in.

The walls, floor and ceiling were invisible, and when she finally built up the courage to look down, she spotted Stella and Layla lying unconscious in the scolding sand next to the two fairies they fought yesterday. The girl with the green hair was clutching her stomach in her sleep, and was tossing and turning, whereas the skinny girl with mousey brown hair lay so still you could mistake her for being dead.

"We're safe," Sky answered gloomily. Only this time, all of his friends were with him, minus three…

"Stella!" Brandon screamed. He slammed his fists down on the floor of the cube, shouting as loud as he could.

"It's useless Brandon, she can't hear you," Sky informed his friend, who just ignored him and continued to shout loudly.

"Stella! Stella! Wake up! Get out of there! Layla!"

"Oh no…" Nabu whispered as he recognised the dark skinned girl lying helplessly below him.

"Stella!" Tears were falling freely from Brandon's brown eyes, and his voice was filled with panic and anger.

"Is this what it was like when you saw me in the fire?" Bloom asked Sky, hoping he'd say no. She wouldn't have wanted him to be as hurt as Brandon was.

"Yeah," Sky sighed. He pulled Bloom towards him and rested his chin on her shoulder. Bloom locked her eyes on the girl with the brown hair, who had just twitched.

"They're waking up," Flora alerted them. She covered her face with her hands, refusing to witness the bloodbath that was about to unfold.


	7. Chapter 6

"Get up." Anastasia kicked Stella mercilessly in the ribs. The princess winced, but remained unconscious. "Come on! Fight!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Layla's voice caught Anastasia off-guard, and before she could summon her Winx, Layla had already shot her backwards, away from her friend. The best Layla could do was transform into her Enchantix, as her Believix power was too strong to use against these girls fairly. They'd be finished in no time, and that wouldn't be any fun.

"Layla…" Stella stirred, her honey eyes fluttering open.

"C'mon Stell, let's show these witches what's up," Layla grinned. She was holding out her hand to help Stella stand, when Fauna hit her over the head with a branch that felt more like a brick. The hit made Layla stumble to the ground, and her vision was going blurry. She felt the area where the branch had hit her, and brought back her hand to find it covered in blood.

"Sun burst!" Stella yelled, throwing the ball of golden light at the green-haired fairy. It hit her in the chest and the spell forced the fairy's entire body to heat up.

"Hey fat ass," Anastasia greeted the blonde coldly from behind. "How about a catch-up with an old friend?"

"My pleasure," Stella seethed, building up another attack in her hands. Anastasia was ready, and was able to dodge the attack and throw one of her own at the princess.

"Anne… get back," Fauna warned her friend, but Anastasia ignored her and hit Stella with another attack. The blonde crumpled to the floor, holding her head in her hands. Her powers were instantly drained, and she went back to wearing her white shorts and a pale orange bottom-tied shirt. Anastasia loomed over her, prepared to launch another attack on Stella, when her powers went away also, and she was left to using her fists.

"Guess it's you and me, grass head," Layla smirked. She was still seeing double, but found she could stand and walk just fine.

"I guess so, pixie," Fauna growled.

She was familiar with the Princess of Tides, and she must admit that she wasn't very keen on her. She went against all tradition when it came to the throne, wearing tomboy clothes and spending her days swimming with the mermaids and surfing instead of commanding her people properly. Fauna saw it as an honour to be the one to finish her off, and no doubt that Anastasia felt the same way towards Stella, who also went against royal protocol when it came to what a princess could and could not do. Dating a squire was one of the things that definitely belonged in the 'could not' pile.

Layla lunged forward and tried to knock the fairy, but she flew upwards just in time.

"You'll have to do more than that Layla," Fauna scoffed. She flicked her long green hair behind her shoulder before diving on the princess. Layla jumped out of the way and managed to punch the fairy hard in the jaw, making her whole body spin. As a child, Layla had taken part in a variety of sports, and dancing and water-based ones aside, her favourite by far was boxing.

"How was that?" Layla smirked. She stole a glance in Stella's direction before attacking her opponent while she was down.

"Ow! Get off my hair!" Anastasia screeched.

"Stop scratching me!"

"Keep your filthy nails away from my face!"

"Make me!" Stella barked, rolling on top of her opponent. She straddled Anastasia and squeezed her thighs into her side so she couldn't fight back, then gave the stuck-up Princess of Windar a good slap across the face. With both of their powers drained, the two girls resorted to fighting the only other way they knew how – a fully-blown bitch fight.

"You stupid little whore!" Anastasia seethed before sinking her teeth into Stella's hand. The princess yelped and lessened her grip on Anastasia, who then forced Stella off her body and pounced on the blonde before she could react.

"Get your hands off me!" Stella ordered. Anastasia ignored her and wrapped her bony fingers around Stella's throat.

"Face it Stella, no one's gonna get you out of this one," Anastasia taunted. "You're going to die. Then your friends will be picked off one by one… but don't worry, I'll save your precious little squire for last." She pressed her thumb down on Stella's windpipe, making her body writhe.

"N-No…" Stella gasped.

"Yes," Anastasia smiled menacingly, "and there's nothing you can do about it."

"I'll be damned if you hurt any of my friends."

Anastasia's head snapped round to see Fauna trapped in some strange pink substance which muffled her screams and a dark-skinned fairy in her Enchantix form blazing with anger. Anastasia instantly loosened her grip on Stella.

"Layla!" Stella wheezed. She'd never been more grateful to see her friend.

"Morphix blast!" Layla shouted, encasing Anastasia in the same pink substance that Fauna was trapped in. "Are you okay Stell?"

"Peachy," Stella winked. Layla was about to say something when a burst of light came from the place where Fauna was trapped, then another appeared where Anastasia was, and when the light disappeared, so had the two fairies.

* * *

"The stupid bitch!" Anastasia cried, throwing her hands dramatically over her head.

"Which one?" Valium asked, though he really didn't care.

"Both of them!"

"Then I believe the correct term would be bitches," Cathy yawned.

"Shut up!"

"What is this?" Fauna turned to Miran, who shook his head.

"I think this is the safe bit," Miran answered. It was a pleasant change to be in the invisible cage. Here they could sleep easily, for some reason their stomachs were full, and they were no longer dehydrated. It was as if their energy was instantly restored.

"Where are the others then?"

"The whole point of us being safe is so we don't have to worry about fighting them," Chris chuckled softly, keeping his gaze fixed on the Princess of Solaria, who was still bent on her hands and knees coughing up blood.

"Whatever, I could have stayed down there a few more minutes and finished them both off," Anastasia said more to herself than to anyone else.

"Like you could!" Den roared with laughter. "The one in the blue was about to destroy you!"

"Just shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!" Anastasia screamed. She'd finally lost patience with everyone in this group. They were useless. Four of them had been decapitated on the first day, another two had died the following day, and she didn't see Fauna watching her back when Stella was attacking her. The only reason she tolerated these commoners (with the exception of Chris) was so they could kill off the other team, and so far they weren't doing a good job.

"Keep your tits on Annie – oh wait…" Miran smirked. The other Specialists, Den and Cathy started to laugh, but Fauna sat there uncomfortably. She didn't want her best friend being taunted like this.

"That's not funny, Miran," Fauna scolded her boyfriend. "We could have died and you're making jokes,"

"They wouldn't have killed you Fauna, they're cowards," Valium assured her.

"I believe you and Miran are the cowards. After all, you ran away from the burgundy-haired creep and that blonde bimbo down there, and she didn't even have her powers!" Anastasia yelled. The rest of the group looked at the two Golden Horn Specialists in astonishment.

"You got taken down by a guy from Red Fountain and a powerless Alfea fairy?" Cathy howled with laughter.

"That guy's tough!" Valium retorted in a desperate attempt to maintain some kind of dignity, but it was useless. The fact of the matter was that it was three against two, and the three had fled.

"What's going on down there?" Palis thought out loud as he observed the land around the two girls. Layla was still in her Enchantix form, and couldn't summon her Believix. Stella found herself in the same position once her powers had returned, but they were too busy concentrating on their magic than the shifting land.

"You say something Palis?" Chris turned to the sorcerer.

He was never fond of Palis. At Golden Horn he always kept to himself, never really mixing with the students, and because he was a few years older than Chris, he tended to avoid the seniors at all costs. They all knew he was a powerful sorcerer, and didn't dare make fun of him to his face, but he was so unsociable that it seemed weird to not make fun of him. And now Chris was depending on this sorcerer to help him get out alive, and he found the sorcerer to be more distant than usual, which wasn't reassuring. At that moment Palis was kneeling in the corner of the invisible cage, looking down on the two fairies. He was about to answer, when his suspicions were confirmed and the ground beneath them shifted to reveal something so horrific, so terrifying, that it was something no one believed really existed. Yet here it was right before their very eyes.

A vortex.

* * *

"What is that thing?" Stella called out to Layla over the roar of the spinning vortex. Sand was being dusted around them, blocking their vision slightly and making their eyes water. Layla was frozen in horror at the all too familiar whirlpool before her eyes.

"_Keep your back straight! Chin up! Heels together! How are you ever going to rule a kingdom if you constantly slouch? Don't open your mouth, it was a rhetorical question! Ladies do not backchat!"_

_Layla was standing in the centre of her family's throne room, gazing longingly out of the window at the far end which faced the clear blue sea of Andros. Her feet were itching to feel the cool water underneath her toes as she glided across the ocean on her board, but Miss Periwinkle was determined to keep the Princess of Tides on a tight leash in order to teach her the importance of etiquette._

"_Now Layla, you know what would happen if you went against the rules and went swimming in the ocean by yourself!" Layla had heard the threat so many times it was like reciting a favourite poem. "A vortex will open up beneath you and trap you in oblivion, and who will rule the kingdom then?"_

Layla did not have fond memories of Miss Periwinkle's classes. The woman was ruthless, and the threat of a vortex was one of her many tools to get the young princess to behave. One day, when Layla was forced to sip tea in the palace garden, she asked Miss Periwinkle what a vortex was. The woman waved her hand gracefully across the table and a mini cyclone appeared, dragging all of the cutlery and pastries that the table had to offer inside. Although the cyclone was much smaller than the plate of teacakes, it still managed to suck the plate and its contents inside, never to be seen again.

That is what Layla was most afraid of. Who knew that the woman she used to hate with such a passion was right?

"Don't go near it Stella," Layla warned. This vortex was embedded in the ground, and although it was hard to tell from a distance, it seemed bottomless, just like the example Miss Periwinkle had shown her.

"Wasn't planning to," the blonde answered, edging her way closer towards her friend. Layla held out her hand, ready to grab hold of Stella and make a run for it, when the vortex expanded and pulled her feet towards its centre.

"Stella!" The water fairy batted her wings as hard as she could, trying her best to fight against the current of strong wind that was dragging her towards her doom. Forgetting about her own safety, Stella stepped forward and grabbed Layla's wrist with both of her hands. Stella didn't want to risk flying in case the current caught her aswell, so she kept her feet planted firmly in the sand, but the force of the wind was making her slip closer to the edge of the vortex.

"Don't let go," Layla cried, tears falling freely from her cerulean eyes.

"I won't," Stella promised, tightening her grip on Layla's wrist. The fairy used her other arm to cling onto Stella's shoulder, but she kept losing her grip. The current of the vortex grew stronger, and Layla was soon being pulled towards the centre by her ankles. Stella's attempts to stay on land remained futile, and it wouldn't be long before both fairies would be sucked into oblivion.

"Stella, you need to take my power."

"What?"

"It's the only way we can get out of this mess!"

"Layla no!" Stella begged.

"Trust me!"

"I can't leave you."

"You won't," Layla swore. "Just take my power, your solar energy could possibly counteract the dark magic in this thing-"

"And what if it doesn't?"

"Then know that you and the rest of the Winx girls, and the guys, have been the best friends that I've ever had," Layla smiled tearfully. She then transferred her magic to Stella in a ball of light, which Stella absorbed. The Princess of Tides returned to her normal form, whereas the Princess of Solaria grew more powerful and was able to transform into her Believix.

"Now what do I do?"

"Focus on the positive energy inside, and aim it at the centre," Layla instructed. Stella felt uncertain, but did as she was told. She could her feel herself growing weak, and her grip on Layla's wrist started to falter…

"Layla!" Stella tried to regain her hold on her friend but was unable to. The vortex was too strong.

_Let go, _said a soft, familiar voice in Layla's head. "It's not gonna work Stella," Layla informed her friend. "Let go."

"Let go?" Stella repeated, unsure that she'd heard her friend correctly.

"Let go," Layla confirmed. "If I go, the portal will close, and you'll be safe."

"You can't do that," Stella wailed, her honey eyes overflowing with tears, and they weren't just from the sand.

_Let go, _the voice repeated, and this time Stella heard it too. Without a moment's hesitation, Stella let go of Layla's wrist, and the girl sailed into the centre of the vortex. As Layla predicted, it closed up, leaving Stella to fall to her knees and cry.

* * *

Stella was transported to the safe cube with her friends, who looked shocked. Baffled. Traumatised. Betrayed. Disgusted.

"I…" Stella trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence. What could she say? She obeyed a voice in her head that told her to let one of her best friends die?

"It wasn't your fault Stella," Bloom answered uncertainly. She didn't know whether Stella simply lost her grip on Layla, in which case there's nothing she could have done, or if she had let go on purpose. She wasn't sure.

"That was a very brave, noble thing for Layla to do," Tecna choked back a sob. The others nodded their heads in agreement. Stella shifted awkwardly in her spot, noticing that everyone around her, even Brandon, had backed away from her, like she was some kind of monster. _Maybe I am, _she thought to herself, _I just let Layla die. I killed her. Who's to say I couldn't do it to someone else?_

"Where's Riven?" Helia asked in an attempt to distract the others. It worked to some extent.

"I don't care," Musa spat. That cowardly prick had left them when they needed him most, and one of her best friends had just died. She was not in the mood to discuss her boyfriend.

"Everyone else was teleported here safely-"

"Not everyone," Flora cut off what Sky was saying and glared at Stella. The blonde felt her friend's green eyes burn into her skin, but didn't dare look up.

"So that could mean…" Timmy drifted off. He didn't want to finish that sentence. He regretted starting it. Layla was gone. The thought of Riven no longer with them would be too much for the group to handle. But if everyone else was here, and Riven was nowhere in sight, then where could he be?

* * *

"This is just fan-fucking-tastic," Riven muttered to himself. He had wandered aimlessly through the desert since leaving the rest of the group behind.

He was used to being hungry – half of his childhood had revolved around getting his hands on what he could and holding out for days on end until another meal cropped up – but thirst was another issue altogether. There had always been some source of water, be it a filthy puddle or a patch of moss growing on the side of one of the tall buildings of the city. His throat was so raw that he almost choked each time he tried to swallow what little saliva he caught on his tongue, which quickly reduced to nothing. He was quickly becoming dehydrated. And just to add to his list of problems, there was an enormous scorpion-like creature towering above him, poised to attack.

Riven pulled out his magenta double-beam sabre with his good arm and swung it back and forth lazily to scare off the creature. It didn't work.

Riven was tired, parched, hungry, and his arm still hurt. He didn't want to fight any monsters at this point, but as the scorpion crouched in preparation for an attack, Riven realised he had no choice but to kill this thing if he wanted to get out alive. And right now he was debating whether or not he should just give up and die.

"Yeah stop hissing, I get the point," Riven barked at the creature. Its stinger erected itself and pointed in Riven's direction, prepared to douse him in its acid. Thankfully Riven knew all he had to know about this creature as they had studied it in Dangerous Creatures class back at Red Fountain.

It was a Scorpios serrulatus, one of the deadliest of its kind. It responded to sound, as its eyes were located on its back and were constantly facing skywards. Its acidic venom could reach distances up to 10 feet long, slowly rotting away any flesh that comes into contact with it. The best course of action would be to dive under the belly of the Scorpios serrulatus so the stinger can't reach you, which is exactly what Riven did next. He then used his sabre to slice open the belly of the monster, making sure he avoided the guts spilling out of it. When he was sure it was dead, he rolled out from underneath it and carried on his not-so-merry way.

_That was a bit too easy, _Riven pondered, _if only finding water was as simple as that._ Fatigue eventually got the better of him, and the Specialist decided to dig a deep hole in the sand to hide in incase someone stumbled across him. When he was sure that the hole was deep enough to conceal him, he jumped down into the hole and pressed his full weight down onto the hard ground. He sat down in soggy mud and was about to complain when he realised that he was sitting in a wet patch. _A wet patch!_

"Water!" Riven cried with happiness. He stomped on the ground to make more of the liquid appear, and sure enough it did. He used his hands to scoop up the water and he sipped it gratefully. The pain in his throat disappeared almost immediately.


	8. Chapter 7

The sun was setting in the sky when Riven awoke from his nap in the hole he had dug. The sky was a beautiful pink, with a strip of bright orange at the bottom. This was the most relaxed he had been since landing on this awful planet. He let out a tired sigh and straightened his body into a standing position, ready to climb out, when something caught his attention. The insides of the Scorpios serrulatus were spread out around its carcass, instead of being piled on top of eachother like Riven expected. There was no way the insides could have been spread out like that. _Unless…_

The Specialist pushed his blue cape behind him and clambered out of the hole. He treaded slowly across the soft sand towards the beast, the tip of his sword positioned to attack if necessary. Riven froze in his tracks – it could have been a trick of the light, but he could have sworn that the body twitched. He wasn't going to take any chances. He was about to creep to the front of the corpse when a body covered in the thick tar-like substance of the beast's blood jumped over the body, a spear in his left hand.

"You gonna run like last time?" Riven taunted. The bronze-haired Specialist blushed slightly.

"Don't think you're getting the upper hand on this one, Red Fountain," Valium croaked back. Since being teleported out of the safe zone, he hadn't found any water source, and had been hoping to find some clues to one by observing the Scorpios serrulatus, but there wasn't one.

"I believe I already have," Riven replied smoothly. "Do you know what happened to any of the others from my group?"

"One's dead," Valium answered, circling his opponent. Riven did the same, and soon the two Specialists were treading a wide circle with the corpse in the centre. "The pretty dark-skinned girl, wasn't she a princess?"

"Of Tides, she was engaged to my best friend," Riven said, hiding the hurt in his voice. _Layla was gone?_

"Yeah her - Princess Solaria let her die."

"Stella?"

"Let her slide into a vortex."

"I don't believe you," Riven growled, tightening his grip on his sword. Valium laughed.

"You better, I'm sure you can ask Princess Tides when you see her, you won't have to wait long…"

"Don't bet on it," Riven warned. "Say hi to your other friends, and tell them that the blond will be joining them shortly."

"Miran? You don't have a chance," Valium smirked.

"I cut his arm open and the two of you scatter like rats, and that skinny girl was defeated by a powerless fairy-"

"Feel free to go after Anastasia," Valium dropped his guard, marvelling in the thought of leaving Anastasia at the disposal of this Red Fountain brute.

"Anastasia… Who are the others?"

"Green-haired one's Fauna, Cathy's the witch, her friend Chelsea died the first day of these games," Valium told him. No harm in introducing the guy to a group he'd never get to see again, and he could return the favour. "Prince Christopher of Midralis is the senior Specialist, has a thing for your Princess Solaria, Simon's the younger one, and Den's the big guy. Oh, and there's Palis."

"Palis?"

"You know him?"

"No," Riven lied. If Layla was gone, the least he could do was spare Palis' life, for Nabu's sake.

"He's useless, you can have him," Valium paused for a second to shake his bronze hair out of his eyes. "So what about you?"

"Princess Solaria, as you call her, is Stella. She's already with someone."

"The brunette with the bangs?" Riven nodded.

"That's Brandon. Prince Sky of Eraklyon is the blond-"

"Thought I recognised him!"

"Timmy's the guy with the glasses – he's with the pink-haired girl, Tecna. She's friends with Flora, who's with Helia – the guy with long hair. Nabu's the sorcerer - the one who was engaged, the redhead's Bloom, and you already know what happened to Layla…"

"There's another one," Valium butted in. "The girl with the dark hair, amazing legs," Valium grinned. If Chris could sleep with the enemy, so could he.

"You little shit!" Riven broke out of the circle and swung his sword mercilessly at Valium's head. Although he wasn't expecting it, he still managed to avoid the attack. Riven swung again, and again. He wanted this guy dead.

"Whoa calm down! Hit a nerve?"

"I'll hit you!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Valium backed away a few paces then threw his spear at Riven's chest. He didn't miss. "And what's your name, savage?"

"Riven," the Specialist spat, sending a mouthful of blood at Valium's face. He wiped it off with disgust and pulled the spear out of Riven's side.

"Well Riven, if I get the pleasure of seeing your friends, I'll save the dark haired girl…" Valium gave a sly wink in the direction of the dying Specialist. "For myself."

Valium ensured that he had put quite a distance between himself and the dying Red Fountain Specialist before he broke down and cried. He'd just killed someone. He'd left them to die. And the only crime this person had committed was being involved in some sick game they were now all a part of. Valium was truly disgusted with himself.

"I deserve to die," he muttered to himself as he wiped the blood off his spear using his burgundy cape. It was as if his wishes had been answered, because at that moment three Scorpios serrulatus' wandering aimlessly around him.

Valium stopped what he was doing and stayed as still as a statue, hardly daring to breathe. But one of the creatures came a bit too close for his liking and a shocked gasp escaped from his lips before he could stop it. The creature froze, and positioned its stinger ready to eject the acid that was beginning to froth out of the spike. Valium held up his hands to surrender, hoping the creature would show him mercy. It didn't. The Specialist's skin rotted away agonizingly as the acid ate his flesh. The creature saw no need to let the human suffer any longer, and to put it out of its misery, it stuck its stinger into Valium's chest, making sure that the acid took away his insides quickly. The desert was silent once again, and the three creatures burrowed deep into the sand, leaving the two bodies behind.

* * *

"Stay away from me!" The threat was useless as the voice carrying it was trembling in fear. "I'll kill you!"

"Whoa calm down kid," Brandon held his left hand up in surrender, though he kept his green broadsword in his right in case he was ambushed. Red Fountain had taught him better than to let his guard down completely.

"I'll kill you!" Brandon couldn't help but smile. This guy was a freshman, there was no way that he was going to take him down.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble, just get back and let me get back to my group-"

"No!" Simon's face was now red with rage. He didn't want pity from this Red Fountain scum. He may not be as experienced as Brandon was, but he had enough pride to stand his ground.

"Simon! Get back here!" Miran shouted whilst tackling a boy with strawberry blonde hair and glasses. He too was from Red Fountain, and though he didn't have as much muscle as the brunette, he was very skilled when it came to traps and battle tactics. He'd ensnared Chris – an act Brandon was very grateful for – and seemed to be luring him into another one of his traps. The last thing he wanted to do was persuade Simon to take cover from a net in the treetops.

"Shut up Miran, I can handle this farm boy."

"Farm boy?" Brandon repeated feeling a little insulted. "I grew up on Eraklyon you prick!"

"And my father's a duke of Windar, so I suggest you back off or you're going to make yourself one powerful enemy."

"Simon if you don't get back here, so help me I'll pull you back by your boxers so hard you'll be shitting scraps of fabric for a month!" Miran warned, wanting nothing more than to get out of this sticky situation. Three against two, and once again the two were winning. It was embarrassing.

"Miran just let me handle this!"

"Yeah just let him handle it Miran," Brandon smirked, readying his broadsword. He knew Timmy hadn't actually set a trap for this one, he was just tricking him into thinking he had by backing him up. It was working, and in a matter of minutes Miran would run away from Timmy, and hopefully towards Brandon.

"Shut up, Red Fountain!"

"Make me, Golden Horn!"

"Everything okay down there, Brandon?" Timmy called out to his friend casually, taunting Miran further.

"Peachy! How's things on your end, Tim-meister? Is he close?"

Miran's eyes widened. What he predicted seemed to be true – the bastard in the glasses was trying to trap him! Before he could think things over, he ran from Timmy straight to Brandon, intent on grabbing Simon and running like the wind away from the Red Fountain Specialists. Halfway towards Simon Miran had a change of heart, and instead pulled out his phantoblade. Brandon guessed he'd do that and was prepared to launch an attack.

"Watch out Brandon!" Timmy alerted his friend as he could see Miran drawing dangerously close to the brunette. Miran grabbed Simon, who was putting up a bit of a struggle, and sprinted in the opposite direction towards the trees.

"Wasn't expecting that," Brandon thought out loud as he scratched his head, completely baffled.

* * *

The Winx girls were in a completely different situation to the Specialists. The girls, minus Layla and Tecna, were watching their pink-haired friend down below rocking back and forth on the damp forest ground, weeping silently. The girls couldn't see what was distressing their friend to make her break down like that.

Tecna wished she couldn't either.

"_Why are you here, Tecna?" Musa pulled a disgusted face as she fluttered above her supposed friend._

"_You're only part of our group because we had the misfortune to be stuck with you as a roommate," Flora added coldly, her green eyes a hideous swamp colour instead of their usual jade._

"_You don't fit in. You're a total nerd. A misfit." Stella cackled, swirling alarmingly fast above Tecna's head. The fairy's warmth had vanished and was replaced by an icy air._

"_You're not powerful like I am," Bloom taunted, producing a fiery dragon that encircled Tecna, engulfing her in the heat._

"_Or as kind and loveable as me," Flora gave a sickeningly sweet smile before blowing a handful of flowers in Tecna's face, their scent overpoweringly strong._

"_You're nowhere near as beautiful as I am," Stella grinned, sashaying in mid-air, swinging her hips seductively as she walked. The other girls laughed and started pulling Tecna's clothes._

"_Pathetic! No wonder Timmy's so sick of you, you're like a computer!" Bloom sneered._

"_You're not talented or confident like me, you just shy away with your stupid gadgets and act like little miss know-it-all," Musa said as she pulled harshly at Tecna's bangs._

"_Oh what's the matter? Is Tecna getting upset? Is Tecna gonna cry?" Bloom pouted, her red hair prickling Tecna's skin at the touch._

"_Tecna can't cry, she probably can't find a programme called 'emotions'," Musa laughed. The other girls joined in and continued encircling the poor girl, who was choking on her own sobs._

"_Face it, you're a loner, you always have been, and you always will be," Stella stated matter-of-factly, flashing Tecna one of her beautiful smiles. The glow of the princess started to hurt her eyes, and the heat of the Dragon Fire continued to scorch her skin. Suddenly the earth rose around her and wrapped around her fragile body like a thick blanket, and the shrill sound of an out-of-tune orchestra strained her eardrums._

"Enough!" Tecna cried out loud. The images, the sound, the earth and the heat disappeared, and instead her real friends were transported infront of her.

"Tec? Hey, is everything-"

"Don't touch me!" Tecna kicked her feet out in order to push herself away from her friends. Musa and Flora exchanged a worried glance, while Bloom attempted to take a step forward. Tecna recoiled, only this time she rose to her feet and staggered towards the trees, hoping they'd protect her from Bloom's heat. The images were etched into her brain. Musa was incredibly talented and confident… Flora was a sweet, loveable girl who everyone warmed up to… Stella, even in her current state of bloodied face, mudded clothes, matted hair and smudged mascara looked undeniably beautiful… and everyone knew just how rare and strong a power Bloom held. Tecna felt like nothing in comparison.

"We won't hurt you." Flora's voice was as sweet as syrup, her words gentle and soothing. But they still didn't fool Tecna. What was going on behind the kind, calm façade?

"Yeah, we're your friends," Stella smiled, holding out a hand from where she stood, hoping to coax Tecna out of her hiding spot. She didn't budge.

"Tec, what happened there? You were on the ground shaking, crying, but we couldn't see a thing…" Bloom tried to explain what she saw to Tecna, and tried to get the pink-haired girl to talk, but she kept her mouth shut.

_Even Layla was brave, _Tecna thought to herself. _But Layla's not here…_

"Tec?" Musa asked tentatively. The pink-haired fairy shook her head and stepped out from behind the trees. Her four friends ran up to her and pulled her into a tight hug. Tecna stayed rigid and didn't attempt to hug them back, but stood in the centre of the embrace, trying to piece together who these girls really were.

These girls weren't her friends. Her friends would never say such horrible things. When were her real friends replaced? Was it right before Layla died, and this new Stella had planned to kill her? Would they try to kill Tecna too? Then would they turn on the Specialists? So many questions, and for once Tecna had no way of finding the answers.

* * *

Sky and Nabu were crouched on a tree branch high above the ground, watching Helia's back. Night was creeping in, and so far Brandon and Timmy hadn't yet returned. Helia was doing a ground check, making sure that none of the other team would make a surprise appearance, whilst Sky and Nabu acted as back-up. So far, nothing had happened, and Sky was getting uncomfortable with the awkward silence between himself and Nabu.

"So…" Sky said at last, but he didn't know how to finish. He was hoping Nabu would fill in the gaps.

"I miss her," Nabu sighed after a few more minutes of complete silence. A guilty pang thumped Sky's chest as he remembered the events of that morning. _His fiancée died, jack ass!_

"Me too," Sky replied lamely. He felt unbelievably awkward. He and Bloom were alive and well, as were the other Specialists and their girlfriends, but Nabu had lost his Layla. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Talk about what, Sky?"

Sky raised an eyebrow at his friend uncertainly. "You know…"

"You mean Layla? Oh don't worry, she'll be back soon, I just miss her is all."

"Back? Back from where?"

"I don't know."

"But Nabu," Sky didn't want to be the one to tell his friend that Layla was gone. He shouldn't have to. They'd all seen her get sucked into the vortex, there was no way she could have survived it. Hell, it was lucky Stella got out of there in time aswell, or Brandon would have stupidly insisted on going in after her. That would be three friends lost that day…

"Someone's coming!" Helia warned the pair above him. He brought out his sword, a weapon he wasn't too familiar with, and poised it ready to attack. Instead of a beast or a Golden Horn Specialist, Timmy stumbled out from a large bush, dragging a dazed Brandon behind him.

"Where have you been? What happened?" Sky asked urgently as he jumped from branch to branch back down to solid ground.

"I trapped the brunette, and the younger one and the blond ran off into the woods. We thought they'd gone when they rounded off and came back for the brunette. Once he was released he came charging after Brandon, who dodged him just in time, and the blond, Miran, tried to take me out. I stunned him with my gun, but when I looked around I couldn't find the younger one. Then I spotted him between Brandon and the brunette, and Brandon was going to block an attack when…"

"I killed him," Brandon finished, his voice edged with remorse. "I didn't mean to, that Chris guy swung his sword at my head and when I lifted my broadsword to block it I cut the kid's side…"

"It wasn't your fault, Brandon," Timmy reminded his friend. Brandon shook his head.

"I'm a murderer."

"It was an accident," Helia assured him softly. "You didn't intend to kill him, he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"You would have had to do it eventually," Sky added unhelpfully. Timmy and Helia shot him a look. "What? It's us or them!"

"You sound like Riven," Nabu grinned.

"Speaking of my favourite hot-head, where is he?" Helia smiled, hoping Brandon and Timmy had some good news. The pair shook their heads.

"We don't know where he is," Brandon confessed. "One of the Golden Horn Specialists was missing too, someone called Valium?"

"This can't be good," Nabu muttered to himself. Riven was alone. Injured. On edge. He wouldn't be thinking straight, leaving him vulnerable… he wasn't going to lose one of his friends.

"We should look for the girls," Sky suggested, desperate to distract his friends. The other boys nodded, and followed Sky out of the forest, hoping to come across the girls.

"Timmy!" Tecna ran over to her boyfriend the second she saw him, and wrapped her arms around his neck, burrowing her head deep into his chest. Her sudden affection took Timmy by surprise, but he hugged her nonetheless.

"Uh, hey Tecna," Timmy stammered, adjusting his glasses. The rest of the Winx were nowhere near as enthusiastic when it came to greeting their other halves.

"Where have you been, Sky? I've been worried sick!" Bloom's blue eyes were as fiery as her flaming red hair. It had been hours since she'd last seen Sky, giving her plenty of time to think of worst case scenarios.

"Sorry it took so long to stumble across you in the middle of nowhere," Sky mumbled, making sure Bloom didn't hear. He gave her a hug anyway; after all he'd been just as worried for her wellbeing as she had for his. He stole a quick glance in Brandon's direction, and things weren't looking too well for 'Strandon', as Teen Fairy had christened them.

Stella wasn't talking. She had barely spoken since that morning's events with the vortex. The talkative Princess of Solaria, the positive sunshine of the group, was mute. She was alone with her thoughts, mulling over why she had let Layla go, and whether or not it was the right thing to do. Most saw her as a shallow person, but her friends and her Brandon had seen her differently. Today she proved otherwise, and she'd started to wonder if she really was a shallow, self-centred girl who cared about no-one but herself…

Brandon wasn't in a better shape himself. Ever since these games began he had lost his bright, humorous charm that made Brandon who he was. In the time it took the Specialists to find the girls Brandon hadn't uttered a word, wallowing in his own self-pity. He had killed someone. Someone young, pretty much defenceless. Practically a child. Was there anything he could have done to avoid it? Should he have backed away from Chris when he had the chance? Even now, he felt too guilty to admit to Stella that he knew how it felt to be responsible for someone's death. How it ate away at your very being, how it tainted who you are and made you question everything you've done. All he wanted to do was hold his girlfriend, kiss her endlessly, somehow apologise for being so distant and tell her how much he loves her.

Brandon may be brave, and strong. But guilt held him down like shackles and metal balls, and he couldn't find the willpower to do anything other than sit in silence. It was fine by Stella. She too was drowning in her own shame.

"Hey Nabu," Musa sat next to the sorcerer, who was hiding under a canopy of leaves on the outside of the forest, lost in thought.

"Musa," he gave a curt nod.

"I miss her too."

"She'll be back soon," Nabu grinned, his eyes twinkling mischievously. _What is he talking about? Back from where?_

"Where's she gone, Nabu?" Musa asked carefully. She didn't want to trigger any tears.

"I don't know, but she'll find us," he answered determinedly. Musa shook her head in disbelief. Did Nabu believe Layla was still alive?

It was at that moment when Sky came over to the pair. "He said the same thing to me before," he directed it at Musa.

"Nabu I'm not sure what you mean," the fairy confessed. Nabu simply gave her a sympathetic look then gazed up at the stars.

"I think I do," Timmy interjected, hiding an anxious Tecna. Musa peered carefully at her friend, who was glaring at her in return. "You see, when we all thought that the worst had happened to Tecna, I had this… feeling, like I knew she was still alive."

"And she was," Sky smiled fondly at the memory. Timmy stayed awake for nights on end fiddling with pieces of technology in the hopes of getting a signal to lead him to Tecna. He was dedicated alright.

"Maybe Layla will come back," Timmy hinted, which made Nabu's muscles relax instantly. _Finally, _someone_ believes me!_

"But Timmy, she was sucked into a vortex, the chances of her survival are one in several billion," Tecna calculated. She didn't want to make Nabu upset, but there was no need to give him false hope.

"You never know, Tecna," Musa smiled. Tecna's face remained neutral towards the fairy.

"Come along Timmy, let's go for a walk." Tecna dragged Timmy by the hand to the other end of the camp.

"Tecna what's gotten into you?" Timmy finally asked when they were out of earshot of the others. Something wasn't right about her public displays of affection, or her loathing towards her friends.

"They're after us, Timmy," Tecna said in a grave voice. When Timmy didn't say anything, she elaborated. "Those girls. They aren't the Winx. Just before, they were taunting me - torturing me! My friends would never do that! There's no dark energy, so they haven't been cursed, so they must have been replaced by these girls. Have you not noticed how this new Stella is really quiet? Or how Bloom is losing control of everything? It's not them! It's not them!" Tecna screamed, pounding her fists on her boyfriend's chest.

"Well what should we do?" Timmy asked uncertainly. Fair enough the girls were acting differently, but so were the Specialists, and it was only logical that it was a result of the crash and the events following.

"It's simple," Tecna smiled menacingly up at her boyfriend, her teal eyes shaded with an unfamiliar frenzy. "We kill them."

**Things aren't looking good for the Winx and the RF Specialists - Stella's not trusted by anyone, Brandon doesn't trust himself, it appears Nabu and Tecna have gone mad... but don't worry, this is only just the beginning.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Not gonna lie, Everlasting Glory was right when she pointed out that the Winx and Specialists would turn on one another, and in this chapter the group divides further. Hm, it appears I'm becoming predictable. Oh well, there are still many unanswered questions in this fanfic - are Layla and Riven really gone? What kind of mad-man is behind all this? And who's the twelfth member of the other group?**

**Hah, that got you thinking.**

**-Ryan.**

* * *

"It's my fault," Miran finally broke the silence that had fallen upon the two Specialists after their near escape. The two Red Fountain boys had stumbled into the forest, leaving Chris and Miran to drag Simon's body in the opposite direction to the desert. Swarms of flies had already gathered on the place where the green broadsword met his flesh, and were feeding on the remains of the sophomore.

"There's nothing you could have done," Chris told him. If anything, he was to blame. He was the one who wanted to finish off Brandon. It was easy bait – but Simon got in the way. If only he'd moved when Chris ordered him to, then it'd be Brandon's body left for dead and not his.

"But Fauna-"

"Will understand! It wasn't our fault! It was Red Fountain, and they won't stop at Simon! If we don't pick off the rest they'll get to us!"

"Chris…" Miran adjusted his hold on Simon's lifeless feet and pressed forwards.

"No, let me finish! We need a plan, a fool-proof plan, to get rid of-"

"Chris!"

"What?"

"Look!" Chris' eyes followed the direction Miran was facing and saw a human carcass – or half of one – rotting in the hot sand ahead of them. Chris looked down at his feet and saw a scrap of dark red fabric.

"Valium?"

The two boys dropped the body and ran over to the second corpse. It was in bad shape. The acid had eaten away his entire mid-section, leaving a gaping hole in the body. The only thing holding the two halves together were strips of flesh to his sides. Pain was frozen on his face, with one half drooping to one side, and you could see where tiny drops of acid had fallen as it made the skin wax-like. One droplet found its way to his eyelid, closing off the corner of his right eye. The image was horrific. If the Specialists had not known any better, there was no telling who this corpse belonged to.

Miran went back to the place where he and Chris had left Simon's body and dragged it to the sight of their friend, or what was left of him. The Specialists had tears in their eyes, but remained silent. Night had crept in, and the pair would have to be extra-careful if they wanted to avoid an attack. Chris squinted his eyes to take in his surroundings. The light of the moon was reflected off of a steely armour not that far ahead of them.

"This way," Chris nodded. Miran hauled Simon's body over his shoulder and followed his friend up a small sand dune towards the armour. The closer they came to it, the more recognisable the object became. It was the shell of a Scorpios serrulatus. The Golden Horn Specialists had never seen one up close, but they could point out its key features; the large pincers at the front of its frame, the threatening stinger at the end of a very powerful tail, even its four eyes if they looked closely enough at its back. Slowly, the pair began to piece together how their friend had died.

"There's blood over here," Miran pointed out. "Loads of it!"

"Do you think it's Val's?"

"No," Miran thought carefully, "his corpse is too far away. The Scorpios serrulatus can't eject venom once it's dead. Valium must have killed this one, walked in that direction and met another on his way."

"That doesn't explain the blood."

"Maybe he wasn't the only one here."

"You mean it could have been one of those Red Fountain Specialists?" Chris started to get giddy at the thought. It couldn't have possibly been Brandon, but atleast one of his stupid friends was out of the way, which meant a better chance of finishing him off.

Miran bent down to retrieve something sticking out of the sand. It was sticky with blood, and he had to clean it with his cape before examining it closely. "Yeah, and I think I know which one."

"Who?"

"The one with the magenta spikes," Miran confirmed after spotting the magenta gem on the double-beamed sabre.

"Then where's the body?" Both men froze where they stood. Where was the body? Scorpios serrulatus' don't eat humans, they only attack them for fun.

"I don't know," Miran whispered, suddenly overcome by panic. He and Chris grabbed Simon's body and ran away from the sight as fast as they could. Maybe there was another creature out there, one they weren't familiar with, that quite liked the taste of humans. And neither of the Specialists fancied the idea of being someone's dinner.

After going through the day's events with the rest of the group, Chris lay down on the cool sand to try and get some sleep. He was just drifting off when a thin arm smoothed over his chest, edging closer to his…

"Whoa!" Chris jumped back from where he lay to find Anastasia smiling rather sweetly at him. "What are you doing?"

"Just getting comfortable," the princess replied innocently. Chris shot her a look. "I have a favour to ask of you."

"Whatever it is, the answer's no."

"I wouldn't be so hasty…"

"What do you mean?" Chris rose an eyebrow suspiciously at the princess.

"How would you like to get Princess Solaria, and finish off that pathetic squire all in one go?"

* * *

So far, he had sat back and watched them suffer. Fair enough, he had placed them in certain situations on purpose, and toyed with their minds, but apart from that it was up to their own devices. He was too busy focusing on the other realms to pay attention to the two groups on the baron planet. Until now.

He was impressed. Anastasia of Windar was useless when it came to fighting, but her battle tactics were something else. He listened in, piecing together the parts of her plan. He had already decided what he wanted to do the next day, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up. He would help them. He'd be an idiot not to. The result would be brilliant, atleast six dead by the end of the day all because of one event. By the time Anastasia had finished talking he'd formed a plan of his own. After this, he would leave them on their own. He'd ignore them. They'll eventually kill eachother anyway. Right now he had to focus on everything else.

_Why didn't I think of this before? It's so simple! In a few days I'll take away the negative energy, and the survivors will come out, thinking they've won. Then I'll attack. And the Magical Dimension will be mine._

* * *

Fauna continued to weep over the corpse of her dead baby brother. Miran held her shoulders supportively and shushed her when her sobs disrupted the rest of the group's rest, but apart from that he felt completely useless._ I promised I'd protect him, _he reminded himself. _I promised I'd protect him and I let him die…_

"What was that?" Miran leapt up, readying himself to attack, when he saw Den tossing and turning on the floor. He let out a loud snore before rolling onto his belly and drifting back into a perverted dream about an underground club he'd once visited in Tides.

Cathy too saw the overweight good-for-nothing stir in his sleep, but she payed little attention. She was lost in thought, mainly about her friend, Chelsea. The two had been sworn enemies throughout freshmen year, until they were paired together in hexes class. As a private school for witches, Lightening Cavern had a third of the number of students at Cloud Tower, so it was no wonder that the two had to cross paths more than they would have wanted to. Half a class of zombified witches and a detention later, the girls became best friends. Cathy remembered the day fondly.

_These dumb fucks don't care. It doesn't matter that they didn't know her. She saved the green-haired fairy's life and none of them acknowledged her sacrifice. _Cathy would have said something, but no one would have listened. The only people in her group that were awake were Fauna and Miran, who were too busy consoling one another to care that a witch had died. _Why is it that everyone sees witches and wizards as heartless beings, _Cathy wondered. _The Trix and Valtor may not be a good example, but they aren't the _only _witches and wizards in the magical dimension for crying out loud!_

On the line of witches and wizards, Cathy started thinking of home. Her mother, her three younger sisters, that clueless Golden Horn Specialist she'd been seeing over semester break… all gone. Just as quickly as that zombie hex went away. Her entire life, everything she ever knew, all gone. Where would she go if she made it out alive? Was there anywhere to go? Even if she was one of the survivors, she'd be stuck living alongside this lot. Two fairies, two Specialists, a fat, lazy asshole, and a sorcerer.

_Where is the sorcerer?_

* * *

Palis was hopelessly lost. When everyone had gone to sleep, he had wandered deeper into the desert in search of the other team. He had to warn Nabu and his friends about what would await them the following morning. He remembered Chris and Miran mentioning that they had taken shelter in the forest, but so far there was no sign of a forest. But he had noticed a few tufts of grass sprouting out of the hard ground. It was still dusted with sand, but the land was surely getting sturdier the more he pressed forwards.

Something caught Palis' eye; a shell. A ginormous red shell. Not one that Palis recognised. Chris had warned them that there could be a creature – a large one – that could have eaten the Red Fountain Specialist. When Palis asked why Valium's body was still in the sand, Miran told him that it was covered in acid. Palis had the displeasure of stumbling upon the corpse, and he could understand why even a hideous monster wouldn't find it appetizing. He turned his back to the shell in the distance and continued walking into the night, which was slowly turning to day.

* * *

Flora's arms were growing tired. Her hands struggled to make their way out of the bonds that strapped her to the side of the cliff, but her attempts remained futile. Her arms were strapped above her head with some kind of leathery strap which was uncomfortably tight around the flower fairy's wrist. Flora's legs were also strapped to the side of the cliff, but thankfully the tips of her boots could touch the floor, so she wasn't left to hang. For some reason, she couldn't speak, which only troubled her further.

_Please… let me go. Please don't do this to me again. I know she's dead. Just set me free or let me join her, just don't taunt me anymore! _Flora begged from within, hoping that someone would miraculously get the message. No one did, but a very familiar figure emerged from the cluster of trees infront of her.

"Helia!" Flora cried with delight. Her voice had returned, and so had her love. "You have to get out of here! Something might be coming!"

"Relax Flora," Helia replied coolly, stepping closer towards his girlfriend until their faces were almost touching. "No one's going to hurt you," he murmured, his cold breath triggering a series of shivers to erupt along Flora's back. Something wasn't right.

"Helia?" Flora asked uncertainly. Her boyfriend looked up to her, locking his unusually lustful cobalt eyes with her sparkling jade ones.

"Struggling is pointless," he murmured again, this time allowing his lips to plant icy, damp kisses on Flora's hot skin. She started to sweat with worry.

"What are you doing? Aren't you going to get me out?"

"Quite the opposite, my dear," Helia smirked as his fingers lazily grazed the inside of Flora's thigh. "I quite like you this way, all fired up, yet powerless to stop me…"

"Stop you from doing what?" Flora asked panicked.

Helia simply chuckled, allowing his fingers to edge further up Flora's thigh. His fingertips skimmed the hem of her underwear underneath her skirt, making Flora feel more uncomfortable than she already was, which she honestly didn't think possible. To answer her question, he slowly pulled down Flora's underwear, and his thin, cold lips resumed their position at her neck. When she screamed, Helia slapped her harshly across the face.

"Shut up." Flora ignored him, and continued to scream at the top of her lungs, until her throat felt like it was on fire. "Shut up!"

"No! Let me out! Someone! Anyone! Please!"

"Shut up!" Helia hit her again, but this time Flora's head met the hard rock of the cliff behind her. She could feel hot, sticky liquid oozing out of the place of impact and trickling from her skull down the nape of her neck.

"Let me go," Flora whimpered.

"See what you've done now, you stupid bitch?" Helia glared at her. Fear swept over Flora like a tidal wave, knocking her back and forth until she was breathless with horror. Bearing Helia's previous actions in mind, she was dreading what would come next.

Helia had made many enemies in the past few years. The Trix; Valtor; the wizards of the Black Circle; even the guy at a coffee shop back on Earth who pulled his long hair, just because he knew it annoyed him.

Never had he anticipated that his greatest enemy would be himself.

Anger wasn't the word. He didn't know if there was a word to describe how he was feeling. His entire body shook, the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood fiercely on end, and his hands trembled as he folded them in his lap. He was trying not to panic – the gods help him he was really trying – but whatever was down there was torturing Flora. His Flora. He'd be damned to the nine hells before he let that git touch her again.

One thing Helia did notice whilst trapped in this small invisible cube was that his other friends were nowhere to be seen. He was left alone to witness this disgusting act that was being inflicted on the love of his life. No one was with him to offer moral support, or to attempt to distract him from the sight below. Nobody to embrace him, to lie to him and say everything was okay when that imposter groped his girlfriend. _Groped his girlfriend…_

Two things snapped at once.

* * *

Tecna stormed through the forest, putting as much distance between herself and Musa as possible. Timmy and Nabu lagged behind helplessly, torn between keeping up with their frazzled friend and helping another who was unbelievably upset, despite her protests that she was perfectly fine. In the end the two men silently agreed to split up, leaving Nabu to tend to a heartbroken Musa and Timmy to follow his deranged girlfriend through the foliage of the planet's forest.

"Tecna," Timmy wheezed when he finally caught up to the pink-haired girl. "Couldn't we take a rest?"

"No."

"But we've been walking… in circles… for ages!" Timmy panted as he jogged lightly in order to keep up with the girl in front, who seemed to be accelerating her way through the undergrowth.

"I said no," Tecna repeated firmly. The only reason she was walking at such an unruly brisk pace on a windy route was so she could ditch Fake Musa, which didn't seem to be working. Her mind began calculating a different plan to get rid of the musical fairy's imposter when it dawned on her that maybe a break was exactly what she needed.

"Hey!" Nabu shouted from far behind the pair. "If you two don't mind slowing down a bit, so the rest of us can keep up, I'd be very grateful!"

"We're stopping now anyway," Timmy shouted back as he took note of Tecna sitting on the knotted roots of an unfamiliar tree. "So much for no rest," he muttered under his breath.

Tecna heard, but was too busy wrapped in her own thoughts to give him a pointed look. She'd noticed that Timmy had been acting strangely also. Since this morning he seemed very… tense. No matter what it was, he started to panic and his eyes darted around their surroundings, as if he was cautious of Tecna's plan to ditch Fake Musa. That was when she concluded that he too was one of them. Nabu aswell, it appeared. The level-headed sorcerer loved Layla with all of his heart, but this new Nabu was treating her death like a joke, telling the rest of the group that 'she'd be back soon'.

She could trust no one. Stella and Brandon were mute. Musa was miserable. Bloom was unbelievably fiery and bossy. Flora was in a world of her own. Layla was dead. Riven was nowhere to be found. Sky appeared to be very forgetful, muddling up the simplest of things, not at all like the orderly leader he usually was. Nabu had lost his mind. And Timmy, well it seemed pretty obvious he was one of them.

The only one who hasn't been replaced is Helia, Tecna speculated. _If I can get to him before these freaks get there first, we can go looking for the rest of the group!_

Her thoughts were interrupted by loud sobs issuing from the trees infront of her. She saw Fake Musa on the ground crying her heart out, shielding her face with her hands in a vain attempt to hide her tears. _Not like Musa_, Tecna grimaced. _Not like Musa at all._

"We need to find the others," Timmy spoke up quietly, feeling rude for disrupting Musa's display of grief. It had dawned on the group the previous night that Riven might be gone for good, as he failed to return to the safe place when everyone else had. Naturally, Musa was heartbroken. Their last conversation was an argument, and what was worse was that she let him go out on his own. She did nothing to stop him.

"You're right, we should split up," Tecna replied coolly. "She can stay here. You," she pointed at Fake Nabu, "can go back the way we came. Timmy can go east towards that cliff we passed not long ago. It appeared there was something suspicious going on not far from it."

"And what about you, Tecna?" Timmy asked as smoothly as he could, which wasn't very. Was she planning to attack Musa in her vulnerable state once he and Nabu had left?

"I'm heading in that direction," Tecna jerked her thumb behind her, towards more forestation. Before anyone could object, she stood up from her uncomfortable seat on the roots and walked efficiently through the trees, stepping over roots and loose vines when she came to them. Timmy watched her carefully, until there wasn't a pink hair in sight. Then, and only then, did he feel it was safe to leave Nabu and Musa.

Timmy's legs ached from all of the walking. Sports had never been his thing – ask any of the other Specialists. Running, hand-to-hand combat, field exercises, he was not a fan. Luckily, and he was thanking the gods for it, he could see the cliff towering over the trees ahead of him. There was still a bit to go, but atleast he was certain that he was going in the right direction, and that he was drawing closer to his destination.

* * *

Chris was admiring his reflection in the clear blue river running through the meadow. He had to hand it to Anastasia, she'd done a good job. His white shirt was spotlessly clean, as were his jeans and the smart green jumper he wore on top. This would certainly make an impression.

He was still taken aback by his surroundings. Never had he come across this part of the planet. It was beautiful – bright flowers of various colours dotted the soft green grass, and the sky was a pale blue without a cloud in sight. The air was silent and peaceful. For the first time in a while, Chris felt completely relaxed.

A soft humming caught his attention. His brown eyes searched the meadow frantically before relaxing as they settled on a figure poised on a large rock at the riverside, combing her fingers gently through her long, luscious blonde hair. The soft cream silk of her corset made her lightly bronzed skin all the more prominent; and the pale orange skirt hid her legs well and flowed to the very bottom of the rock she was perched on. A vision of beauty. She clearly hadn't noticed him yet.

He hadn't tested his voice. He wouldn't dare, incase it didn't work. Appearance was one thing, but vocals were another altogether. Indeed, the setting was impressive, but their plan hadn't involved any talking. Had Anastasia altered his vocals anyway?

The blonde looked up from her reflection in the river, honey eyes alert. They calmed immediately when they fell on him. Chris froze where he stood, scared to step forward in case his cover would be blown.

She had no trouble with coming to him. She stepped carefully off of the rock, holding her skirt so she wouldn't trip. Her blonde hair hung loosely down her back, and a section draped her shoulder. She padded across the soft grass to greet him with a glowing smile, and a gentle kiss on the cheek. She allowed her left arm to rest on his shoulder, and pressed her forehead to his chest, inhaling his scent.

"Brandon."

Brandon's heart melted at the sight of the blonde resting against his firm body. Without hesitation, he wound his arms round her waist and buried his face in her soft hair, taking in the smell of sweet vanilla. He'd missed her. He'd missed her so much. He wanted to say something – anything – but found himself lost for words, unable to make a sound. It bothered him a little, there was so much he wanted to say, but another side of him argued that silence was golden, and he should spend time with his Stella for as long as he could. It seemed too good to be true.

He ignored the niggling feeling in the back of his mind, warning him that this was a trap.

* * *

"I thought it'd be you to come here," the witch sighed, rubbing her temples with her thumb and forefinger. After giving that spoiled fairy the last of her magical energy, she was completely drained and defenceless. She took refuge under a tree, hoping for a bit of rest before someone came to finish her off. It looked like her time had come.

"What do you want?" Bloom spat. She had had enough of witches to last her a lifetime.

"The same as you – I want me dead."

"You think I'd kill you?" Bloom's face twisted in disgust.

"When provoked," the witch smiled. She knew that the Princess of Sparx wouldn't want to intentionally kill her, unless she had good reason. Cathy wasn't stupid. On the contrary, she was a very cunning witch. "So do tell me, would you like your prince fried, or scrambled?"

"Where's Sky?"

"Safe… for now."

A flame sparked on the tips of Bloom's fingers but was extinguished as quickly as it appeared. "I'll repeat the question… where's Sky?"

"And I already told you, he's safe," Cathy replied half-heartedly. She wasn't in the mood to drag this on. All she wanted was the redhead to lose her cool and kill her already. It seemed to be working.

Bloom lunged forward and picked Cathy up by the scruff of her neck, taking her by surprise. "Tell me where he is, witch!"

"I have a name!" Cathy barked, brushing Bloom's hands off her collar. "Kill me, and pretty boy will be revealed."

"What?" Bloom shoved the witch away from her, causing Cathy's head to smack against the tree trunk. She was sure it hurt, but her body was so numb and weak she couldn't feel the pain.

"I told you, if you kill me, Sky will be rev-"

"I heard what you said!"

"Then why did you say 'what'?"

"Because," Bloom answered lamely. _If I kill her, will there be repercussions? What if he doesn't appear, and the secret of his location dies with her?_

"I'd make your mind up soon, it's not just his life that depends on it." That caught Bloom's attention.

"Okay, now you're really confusing me, witch!"

"Cathy," the witch corrected her. "Princess Windar's after your Princess Solaria, and believe me when I say she'll go to any lengths to get what she wants. She's not alone in this plan." She paused to allow the information to sink in. "Your brunette friend's in danger too, though I'm not sure what she's going to do to him. The last I saw of her, she was walking away with the last of my dark magic, which was mixing with her white."

"What's this got to do with you?"

"Are you really that stupid, fairy?" Cathy threw her hands above her head, irritated beyond belief. "Piece it together!"

"What is there to piece together?"

Cathy stood up and positioned herself threateningly infront of the redhead. If she had the willpower she would wind her hands around the fairy's lily-white neck and throttle her until her face was as blue as her eyes. She resisted the urge to do so.

"When Icy took your Dragon Fire, she didn't take it all, did she? Because that power was connected to you," Cathy explained slowly. Bloom nodded to show she understood, and Cathy continued. "Well, it's like that for anyone. I gave Anastasia the last of my power, but it's still connected to me. So if I die…"

"If you die, the spells she's cast will end?"

"Bingo."

* * *

**I'll be honest, I'm not 100% sure where I'm going with this, but I have a rough idea, and that's a start, right?**

**Fingers crossed I have another chapter or two ready soon! I'll do my best!**


	10. Chapter 9

**Firstly I'd just like to thank all of you guys that have read and enjoyed this story, it means a lot to me. And I'm sorry it's taken me a while to update, but I couldn't think of how to start this chapter for the life of me! I'll try and update this story regularly. Promise.**

* * *

"I can't kill you," Bloom gasped, stepping back in shock.

"You have to Bloom!" Cathy grabbed the fairy's wrists. "Please! Just do it! Everyone I knew is dead, there's nothing left for me if I live. And even if you let me go, I have no power to defend myself. Someone will get me, and they'll make it as painful as possible. Please," she locked her dark eyes with Bloom's blue ones pleadingly, "your friends depend on you as much as I do. You have no idea what could be happening to them right now."

* * *

Two things snapped at once. Helia's conscience and the barrier containing him. Helia leapt on top of his other self, pulling the black hair back so hard he felt he could snap his neck easily if he wanted to. But first he wanted to cause this… _thing _a world of pain.

"How… fucking… _dare_… you!" He punctuated each word with a powerful punch to the jaw. The imposter struggled to break free beneath his grasp whilst Flora looked on, completely baffled. Another powerful blow to his ribs, a left hook to the nose, and a right hook to the arm… the motions repeated themselves until the other Helia could predict his moves and was able to throw the real Helia off. Purposely, he rolled on top of the real Helia so Flora couldn't tell which one was which.

"Flora! Help!" Flora's head shook frantically, unable to decide which one was the real Helia. They were so alike, from their cobalt eyes to their graceful motions. She was torn.

"I can't get out," she called back lamely.

Both faces turned to her before turning back on eachother, perfectly synchronised. It was unbelievably strange. It appeared that whatever one Helia did, the other did also – at the exact same time. One swung their arm to the others ribs, the other did the same. One swerved to the left, the other did the same. The only way any of this could be sorted out was if Flora intervened, and for the time being she was strapped down to the side of a cliff.

"Help me," she wept, hoping with all of her heart that someone would.

* * *

Tecna's mind was racing a mile a minute with various plots. _Use electrical energy to manipulate Musa's powers, leaving her vulnerable and disposable. Flora will be easily swayed – convince her you need help, get her on her own, and finish her off. Stella won't put up a fight, after Layla's death she won't want to be responsible for another. Now for Bloom… ow!_

Tecna took a step back. She couldn't see anything suspicious, just the end of the forest. Cautiously, her hand pawed the air infront of her until it met with a smooth surface almost an arm's length away. Using her detection powers, she was able to highlight the barrier infront of her, which was as high as the treetops and stretched out as far as Tecna could see. The neon-coloured cuboid was transparent, but Tecna had a feeling that she couldn't see what was really inside. And she began to question whether she really wanted to know. Shrugging her shoulders, she headed in a different direction and lifted the spell, leaving the barrier invisible to the naked eye.

Stumbling through a sharp thicket, Tecna came across a set of strange footprints leading into the very thick of the forest. Curiosity got the better of her so tentatively, the pink-haired girl stepped forward, hiding behind trees as she did so. The prints were fresh, created about an hour or so ago. If she didn't find whatever, or whoever, the prints belonged to within the next ten minutes or so, she'd move on.

"It must be around here somewhere," Tecna thought aloud to herself as she clambered over a large boulder blocking her path. The grey skies shone very little light, so Tecna had to strain her eyes to take in her surroundings. There wasn't much; tree, another tree, bush, yet another tree, a really big tree, another bush, rocks… on and on.

A scream. A deafening, high pitched scream, coming from Tecna's right. She surged forward, desperately trying to find the source of the sound, when she collided with another figure.

"Run!" The green-haired girl gripped Tecna's shoulders, shaking her manically back and forth. Before Tecna could reply, the girl had stumbled forward and started running in the opposite direction, away from whatever she had seen.

Being the inquisitive person she is, Tecna ignored the girls warning, and went straight into the belly of the beast.

* * *

Nabu was struggling through the undergrowth of the forest, casually pulling vines apart only to have them grow back even thicker. He used the last of his magic to create a path for him to follow, only for it to be hidden in a matter of seconds by a dense wall of vines. "Not helping," he growled.

With no other option, he began to scale the tightly-woven barrier of greenery, growing closer to the tip of the branch of a tree. Once he was close enough to grab hold, he hauled himself onto the branch and crouched down carefully to take in his surroundings. Everything he saw was covered in the same thick green vines, as if they were trying to hide something.

He leapt carelessly from branch to branch, tree to tree, trying to avoid the vines as much as possible. Every now and again, one would wind itself around one of his ankles and catch him off-guard, but the forest was so dense that the chances of plummeting to the ground without being able to grab onto something was incredibly slim. He remembered back on Tides where he was taught how to balance on the narrowest of pillars that protruded from the sea of Andros. His only motivation then was to not fall in the sea and be snapped up by some kind of monster. Now, all he had going for him was to keep moving forward. He was repeating the phrase in his head when something caught his eye. Long, dark hair flowed gently in the breeze, snagging every now and again on loose twigs or leaves. Nabu jumped forward back into the vines he had put so much effort into climbing, to see if he had imagined what he saw. To his horror, he was right.

Hanging from a particularly compact barricade of forestation, with a thin vine cutting into his neck, was Palis.

* * *

Fauna's legs buckled beneath her as she reached the specific point where the forest changed to desert. It was sudden, as if a line was drawn dividing where the sand shifted gently under the weight of a creature, and the grass that blanketed the ground of the forest. She hugged her knees and rocked on her side, unable to form words over her sobs.

"Fauna, what happened?" Miran sprinted towards his girlfriend and skidded to his knees before he reached her. "Look at me!"

Fauna sniffed loudly and tried to explain herself, but more throaty cries tumbled out, replacing an explanation she so badly wanted to give him. When Miran realised she was too upset to speak, he pulled her into a tight embrace, silently promising himself he wouldn't let go.

"That thing… the thing you said got those other Specialists… I saw it. It's…" Fauna's sentence was broken off by a rough gurgling sound building up in her throat.

"Shh, I know," Miran soothed as his hand combed through her wavy green hair.

"It was horrible! Its claw swung out at me, and I thought I was going to die… then I saw the pink-haired girl going towards it when I ran away… I know they're supposed to die, but I couldn't let her go! I couldn't! No one deserves that!"

"It's okay," he shushed gently. "It's all going to be okay…"

"You're lying," Fauna hiccupped once she'd regained control of her voice. "Everything's not okay! This is the total opposite of okay! This is the worst thing that could ever happen!"

"No it's not," Miran murmured.

"Yes it is!"

"No, the worst thing that could ever happen would be losing you." Fauna looked up at her boyfriend, the one who had been so loyal and protective.

"Really?"

"Really," he smiled. "We've come this far, I'm not gonna let you go without a fight."

"I love you," Fauna whispered. It was all she could manage through the lump expanding in her throat.

"I love you, too."

* * *

Musa's joints were screaming out in pain as she sprinted further into the undergrowth of the forest. The foliage was growing thicker the more she ran, but her legs refused to stop. Small rocks flew into the air as the ground beneath her feet shook violently every few seconds. Musa dared to turn her head, and saw that the creature she was running from was drawing nearer.

A sharp claw swept swiftly through the air where her head had just been and cut through the tangled vines. If she hadn't ducked in time, she would have been decapitated. This only encouraged Musa to pick up speed and charge through the path the beast had made, before it closed up again. She hoped that the vines would close quickly enough so the monster would be trapped, but luck wasn't on her side. The creature leapt above her head and landed with a loud _thump _on the moist ground infront of Musa, making her change direction. The beast spun round and chased her again. It reminded Musa of the time she took down a Minotaur in the halls of Alfea, when Riven had come to her rescue…

_Riven_.

Musa stopped abruptly in her path. She turned slowly to face the creature, who was readying for an attack. Musa let her arms fall limply to her sides, and closed her eyes. _I'll see you soon Riven._

The beast raised one of its giant paws, extending a particularly sharp, curved claw. Musa braced herself to feel the slice of the claw hack off her own head.

It didn't come.

* * *

Bloom paced the forest floor hurriedly, debating whether or not it was safe to trust the witch. If she had it in her to kill someone. If she wanted Cathy dead in the first place. Bloom had experience with witches, and not one – with the exception of Mirta – had shown her any kindness. How could she trust Cathy to be any different from the others? That's when she realised that she already knew the answer. "What do I have to do?"

Cathy's body relaxed, and for the first time in a while, she was smiling. "Whatever you want. Just make it quick and painless."

"I don't know how," Bloom blushed, suddenly embarrassed.

"What about the Dragon Fire?"

"It's not designed to kill, and I don't have any weapons."

Cathy pursed her lips thoughtfully. "You could strangle me?"

Bloom shook her head. "It'd take too long. I don't want to hurt you, and I have to get to my friends."

"I understand." Cathy ran a hand nervously through her hair, contemplating whether or not she really wanted to go through with this. But then she remembered that she didn't have much to lose. "Can I make this any easier on you?"

Bloom thought of her own motivation. "Where's Sky?"

"I don't know," Cathy confessed. "I only told you I knew where he was because I wanted to use it as leverage. I don't know if he's safe, or…"

"You lied to me?" Cathy nodded slowly. "How can I trust you? How can I trust you about any of this? My friends could be dying, and all you're doing is stalling!"

"It's my job! Anastasia left me here to die. She took all of my energy! I have nothing left! Nothing! I don't want to live! What's the point if you have no one left to live for? Everyone I know, everything I ever knew, they're gone! It's all gone!" Just then, the witch did something she vowed she'd never do, especially infront of a fairy. She fell to her knees and cried.

"But…"

"Just do it. Please."

* * *

Deep in the forest, haunted by the memories of his friends, Timmy stalked towards the cliff side feeling more alone than ever. It had dawned on him that he would never see Riven or Layla again. There wouldn't be anyone to call him 'Mainframe' or tease him when he struggled to participate in a conversation to do with extreme sports. He wouldn't have the strong-headed, independent princess to point him in the right direction when he didn't have the nerves to tell Tecna something important about their relationship. In different ways, those two people had toughened him up to be a proper man, and had taught him lessons he'd never forget. How could he live without them?

What upset him further was the realisation that he was losing Tecna, too. Timmy didn't know what was going on in that head of hers, which was odd because usually he knew exactly what Tecna was thinking, but it troubled him. Tecna's strange behaviour had made the Specialist paranoid and distrustful of his girlfriend. When she threatened to kill the girls, she couldn't be serious. Tecna was always so logical, so level-headed and in control of any situation. It was so unlike her to lose her cool like that. Timmy knew his Tecna was intelligent, funny, kind, beautiful… but this place had turned his Tecna, the Tecna he loved more than anything else in the world, into a monster.

Deep down, Tecna was still that intelligent person. Timmy knew she was. She could think of multiple solutions to get herself out of a sticky situation. And this is what worried Timmy the most, because if this new Tecna was as smart as his, then nothing could be done to stop her.

"I should turn back," Timmy sighed. He was about to do so when a distinctive scream sounded from the cliff side. Someone was in danger.

* * *

"Nabu!"

"Stay down!" he commanded, holding the fairy to the ground. The beast was drawing nearer, infuriated by the interruption.

"Let me go!" Musa struggled out of Nabu's hold, kicking and biting as best as she could under the circumstances. He ignored her and pushed her further into a tight group of vines, hoping the monster wouldn't cut them down to reveal their hiding place. He crawled on his knees and elbows towards the trunk of a tree for refuge. Musa was in front, and was forced to head the same way. Turning back wasn't an option; Nabu would only force her onwards again. And there was no other way to turn.

"Can this thing climb?"

"No. It relies on cutting things down."

"Okay," Nabu stopped mid-crawl, "we have to climb up the vines. There's a tight cluster not far ahead, but it's going to be hard. Are you ready?"

"No."

Nabu pretended she'd said otherwise. "Okay, let's go!"

The pair made it to a break in the vines where, as Nabu promised, was a wall of tightly-woven vines that formed a makeshift ladder. Nabu waited for Musa to climb first before grabbing onto the vines himself. He hauled himself up with ease and climbed quickly until he was right next to Musa, who was starting to shake with fear.

"There's something there," she whispered, daring to unhook one hand to point upwards. Nabu followed the direction of her finger and saw two elongated ovals rocking side to side. He knew exactly what – or rather who it was, but he wasn't going to scare Musa by telling her the truth.

"Ignore it, keep climbing."

Musa obeyed and scaled up the barrier, aiming for the closest branch. Nabu was about to swing to the side to join her when the _shing _sound of a knife slicing through flesh echoed around the treetops above him. Nabu shut his eyes tightly, but he could still feel the _whoosh _of the body falling past him, and the thump when it landed on the ground. And he knew there and then that he'd never forget the piercing screech of Musa's scream. "Nabu! Nabu it's here! Nabu!"

The sorcerer was snapped back to reality in an instant and scurried towards Musa, determined to reach her before the creature did. The vines were still rebuilding, and every now and again Nabu would accidentally grab onto one that was loose, causing him to slip. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he swung towards Musa using a vine that was still intact, narrowly missing the snout of the beast before him. Musa was already perched on the branch, ready to climb upwards for cover. Nabu heaved his body next to hers, adjusted his grip on the side of the wide trunk and shuffled upwards to the next branch. Musa followed.

"Who was that?" Musa cried, her eyes glassing over with tears.

"Palis," Nabu whispered.

He spotted his cousin's bloody torso lying on the ground. The creature that was so focused on them a second ago had taken interest in something Nabu couldn't see from so high up, so instead he focused on the little details of his surroundings. Its fur was black, thick and bristly and the claws were curved like yellow opaque phantoblades, only much longer and probably deadlier. He only had to look to his right to see the rest of his cousin, still suspended from the roped vine. He avoided turning that way at all costs.

"I'm sorry," Musa sniffed. Nabu wasn't sure if she was talking about her constant crying, trying to get herself killed, or Nabu's loss. In the end he shook his head. "He was a good man."

"The best," Nabu agreed. "Layla's going to be devastated when she finds out."

Musa's head snapped round, her sorrow replaced with irritation in a flash. "Nabu, Layla's not coming back."

"She is, I'm sure of it-"

"No," Musa told him firmly, "Layla's not coming back. Layla is dead. Stop pretending like everything's okay, because it's not! Riven and Layla are gone, and no matter how much you say otherwise, they're still gonna be dead! There's nothing we can do!"

"But she must be alive," Nabu choked.

"She's gone, Nabu. I know it's hard, believe me, but it's the truth. The more you kid yourself, the more it's going to hurt."

"But it's unnatural for someone to sense another person's wellbeing…"

"Unless you love them," Musa finished, tears refilling her eyes. She looked at Nabu, who had silvery streaks staining his cheeks. Nabu extended his arms to embrace Musa, and the two shared a warm hug filled with loss and regret, of the things they forgot to, and never could say to their loved ones, who were long gone. The way Nabu held Musa reminded her of how her father Ho-Boe would hug her to show her how proud he was. She realised she'd never get to do that again, which made her cry even harder. "Nabu, I'm so sorry."

Nabu shook his head. "This isn't over."

* * *

**You have no idea how many times I had to re-write this chapter until I was satisfied. Seriously. Oh well, the good news is that my writer's block has disappeared (for now) and I should have another chapter up in a day or two.**


	11. Chapter 10

**Thank you all for your lovely reviews so far, and I'm very sorry for the long delay, especially to those who I told there would be an update in the days following the last. Huge, accidental lie. It's certainly been a while since I last updated, but I've finally gotten around to posting that chapter I promised... three months ago. I've had so little time to write, what with exams, rehearsals, prom commitee, college applications - oh well, most are busy this time of year with Christmas just around the corner.**

**Speaking of which, I'll be in Florida during the Christmas holidays, and depending on the wi-fi I may or may not be back to updating on a regular basis. Just thought you guys should know :)**

**Anyhow enough about me, I hope you enjoy this update, and I'm not making any promises this time about the next one. Promise.**

* * *

Brandon's hands glided over the body pressed against his, exploring the familiar crevices with the tips of his fingers. Stella's own hands pawed at the bare skin beneath his shirt, smoothing over his strong chest. Their mouths captured one another in an intense and passionate kiss; one neither was willing to break. It deepened, allowing Brandon's tongue to slide inside her mouth and dance with hers. Stella tilted her head to get a better angle, and Brandon used this to say all of his unspoken thoughts. _I'm sorry. I wasn't there for you when you needed me. I promise I'll look after you. I love you._

Stella was submerged in a coma of sorts, her mind emptying itself of all sense and her heart pounded faster with every second that passed. Brandon pulled her up by her waist and allowed her to wrap her legs around his hips. She held on to the nape of his neck and let her tongue move hungrily around his mouth. She didn't care if this was some kind of dream – she just wanted to forget all that had happened and spend some long-awaited time with her Brandon.

Brandon reluctantly broke away from the kiss and lowered the blonde back to the ground. She gave him a quizzical look, which Brandon only saw the half of as he pulled the green jumper off his head. When he could see again, Stella was smirking at him, her hands reaching behind her back to untie the ribbon that fastened the corset of her dress. Brandon could feel the saliva building up in his mouth. Stella was teasing him, pulling the ribbon out as slow as she possibly could, making it excruciatingly painful for Brandon to wait any longer. Brandon pounced forward, his arms already extended to unfasten the clasp at the back of the corset, his entire body quivering in anticipation to feel Stella's soft skin against his own again.

But instead of pulling Stella closer, he found himself shoving Anastasia harshly to the ground.

* * *

"_Harder_," the witch spat, blocking out the throbbing pain in her forehead.

* * *

"Flora!" Timmy gasped. Two Helia's looked up at him, first confused then relaxed, and relief flooded the face of the tanned fairy bonded to the cliff side.

"Timmy! Help me!"

Timmy didn't need telling twice. Both Helia's stayed where they stood as Timmy sprinted towards his friend, sword already raised above his head. Flora cringed as Timmy's sword glided through the air to slice through the straps, but the movement was so precise that she hardly felt a thing. She twirled her wrist in the air for a good few seconds before using her free hand to release the second.

"Which one's Helia?"

"I am!" they both answered simultaneously.

"Is there any way of telling them apart?" Timmy looked hopefully towards Flora. She shook her head.

"Their movements and speech patterns are in sync," Flora told him hopelessly.

Timmy's sword pointed from one Helia to the next. "This doesn't help."

"Flora," both Helia's stepped forward, "listen to my voice. It's me." Flora looked helplessly from Helia to Helia, unable to tell them apart. Both were looking at her pleadingly with their calm, cobalt eyes, and their gentle hands were reaching out to her. She cringed back into the cliffside at the thought of being touched again.

"Were there any inflicted injuries when the original showed up?" Timmy peered closely at both Helia's. They were exactly alike in appearance.

"The non-Helia would have bruises on his ribs. Helia started to punch him there when he showed up." Both figures stayed completely still as Timmy paced slowly infront of them, sword raised. He stopped infront of one Helia, and lifted his shirt. There were no bruises.

Timmy aimed his sword at the other Helia, the one who must have the scars that gave away his identity. Both Helia's began to run away from Timmy, and he noticed that they were heading in slightly different directions, slowly breaking apart. He dropped his sword in defeat. There was no telling them apart.

"Are you okay Flora?" Timmy let out a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. Flora shook her head. "Is there anything I can do?"

"How can they go in separate directions?" Flora speculated, keeping her gaze fixed on the place where one Helia had vanished in the cover of the trees.

* * *

"Y-you're not…" Stella stuttered after Chris had shoved her to the ground. She couldn't have mistaken what she saw – it was as if Brandon was static hiding the true identity of the person before her, and for a split second, she could see who it really was. "You're not Brandon!"

"What have you done with Stella!" The voice coming from the imposter was definitely Brandon's. It sounded furious.

"Take a guess, pretty boy," Stella spoke. The voice did not belong to her, though it was one she'd heard before.

"Get back here Stella," Chris commanded, his regular voice returning. Stella looked up in horror to see her boyfriend looming over her threateningly, his usually warm brown eyes narrowed and darting across her body hungrily. Stella scrambled back onto her feet, pressing the front of her dress close to her chest and began to run away from Brandon, or Chris, or _whatever_ it was.

"Stay away from me!" Stella cried, doing her best to out-run the person in her boyfriend's body. "Come and get me, Brandon." Stella covered her mouth in fright. _Anastasia?_

'Brandon' had managed to catch up to Stella in her moment of shock and pinned her down to the ground roughly, straddling her mid-section. Stella tried to squirm out of his grasp but it was useless, he was too strong. "Tell me where Stella is, or I will kill you."

"Brandon!" Stella screamed loudly, hoping he was nearby.

"Stella!" Brandon's voice broke through the body before her, sounding panicked and frantic. "Are you okay sweetie? Where are you?"

"What's going on?" Chris shouted.

Stella's mouth was forced open again. "Something's happened to the witch. We won't hold out much longer. Get closer and it'll strengthen the spell." _What spell? What's going on?_

Brandon straightened up and dragged 'Stella' by the wrists. He wasn't sure where he was going, but he started taking large strides towards the narrow river dividing the clearing. The closer he came, the more clearly he could see another him, dragging another Stella. His Stella.

"What is this?" Brandon snapped at the girl in his arms.

"A mirror spell. Whatever you do or say, he does also. Same goes for me and _her,_" she seethed. "The river acts as a mirror," Anastasia grunted. "If you want your Stella to survive, then you have to let me live."

Brandon began to panic at the realisation that there was no way out of this one. If he tried to get close to Stella, Chris would move forward also, and Stella would be left behind. Unless-

"Stella?" The blonde on the other side of the river looked up, hopeful. "I need you to step close towards the river, but no closer. Okay sweetie?" Stella nodded and did as she was told. Beside him, Anastasia mirrored her actions, just as Brandon wanted her to. Brandon then stepped back a few paces, and sprinted towards the river, leaping over it to the other side. Chris did the same, and ended up with Anastasia.

"Brandon!" Stella leapt into Brandon's open arms and kissed him wherever she could reach. Brandon's eyes averted to the other side of the river, where he could see Anastasia forced to do the same.

"Don't think this is over Red Fountain, I still got her," Chris smirked. Brandon tensed, resisting the urge to cross the river and attempt to strangle him.

"Are you okay snookums?" Brandon mumbled into Stella's hair. She nodded. "I'm so sorry."

"What for Brandon?" she breathed, nuzzling her face into his warm neck.

"I know how it feels to… well…"

"I know."

"I'd do it all again if it meant keeping you safe," Brandon admitted.

Stella locked her eyes with his, "Let's hope you don't have to."

* * *

"I can feel the spell wearing off," Cathy spluttered, sending a mouthful of blood in Bloom's direction. "If Anastasia didn't change her mind on using that mirror spell, then they should be able to speak for themselves and change facial expressions. That'll be all for now."

"What about their movements?"

"They'll still be mirrored. If they run into eachother again, there's no chance of either winning unless the spell is broken."

Bloom bit her lip nervously. "Does that mean you can stay here?" Cathy shook her head. "Why not?"

"Because I don't know what else Anastasia has done."

"But my friends could be hurt!"

"How many are out there?"

"Eight, if I don't count Stella and Brandon," Bloom confirmed after counting them off in her head.

"I don't see why she'd go after any of them. If anything she'll leave them for Miran or Den."

"Are they a threat?"

"Miran is, but I'd imagine after yesterday he'll be a little rattled. And Den's as dumb as they get."

"Is there any chance they could of… you know…"

"They haven't found Sky."

"How can you be so sure?" Bloom quizzed, digging her nails harshly into her arms.

"He's survived this long hasn't he?" Cathy smiled. "He's smart. He can handle himself."

"Sky's never been in… this yet. Atleast not on his own."

Cathy's eyebrows furrowed together before retracting again from the pain in her head. "That's strange. Everyone else has. Even you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bloom glowered, dropping her hands from her arms so Cathy could see small purple crescents blooming on the skin. "You think it's funny that people have gotten hurt? You think it's funny that people are _dying?_" Cathy didn't reply. "Look at me!"

"You have a temper, you know that?"

"Do you think this is some kind of joke?" Bloom screamed, pushing her wrists out infront of Cathy. She cringed when she saw the deep scars from the thorns. "That almost killed me! Sky saw that happen, and it almost killed him! He and I have had to watch our friends suffer in so many different ways, and it's tearing us up inside!"

"So you're saying whoever this guy is, he's after you and your boyfriend?" Cathy asked sarcastically. But then, "Oh shit."

* * *

Brandon's hands ran over the smooth surface, searching for a crack or a dint, something to disprove his worst nightmare to be true. "It's a dead end."

"We could climb," Stella suggested, eyeing the trees. Brandon shook his head.

"It's not safe. We don't know how high this thing goes."

Stella pulled off her pumps regardless and began to scale the tree before her, which had branches jutting out from all sides. She made it almost six feet from the ground when a hand wrapped around her ankle. "Come down Stella, before you get hurt."

"We have to try, Bran," Stella sighed, wriggling her foot loose of his grasp.

"Let's go back the way we came," Brandon suggested half-heartedly.

Anastasia found herself running lightly back towards the river with Chris in tow. Was that dumb blonde seriously thinking of killing her? And in turn, herself? Is that the only idea she could come up with to get out of this place?

"The bimbo climbs a tree, rips her dress, and now she wants to kill herself? This is great! I hate her!"

"What do they know that we don't?" Chris asked. He knew Anastasia knew something he didn't, he just couldn't figure out what it was.

"Nothing, I hope," the girl infront of him panted. Even though Chris knew it was really Anastasia, he couldn't help but admire the body of the blonde infront of him, and pretend for a second that it was really Stella pulling him through the undergrowth. He started to regret not taking her when he had the chance, and longed for her body against his just once more…

"What are you thinking?" Anastasia took note of the evil smirk on Chris' face as he bounded forward behind her.

"Why not finish what we started?"

* * *

"There were two…"

"I know."

"Both the same, and one went that way, and the other went that way…"

"I know."

The puzzled green eyes looked deeply into his hazel, inquisitive and mad. "But how?"

"I don't know Flora," Timmy replied softly, jogging behind his deranged friend as quickly as he could. Though Flora was oblivious to her surroundings, Timmy was not, and had the strange feeling that something – or someone – dangerous was nearby.

"Why did he leave me? Did I do something wrong?"

"You didn't do anything wrong," Timmy assured her as he staggered ahead.

"I did something bad, Timmy. Something very bad." Flora stopped suddenly to face her friend, her jade eyes glassy with tears. "I need to tell him I'm sorry!"

"You can when we find him Flora," Timmy told her half-heartedly. Deep down he wanted to comfort her with what little energy he had left, as he too was experiencing how it felt to lose the one you love, but his own problems with Tecna overshadowed all other thoughts.

"Do you miss her?" Flora asked timidly. Timmy nodded. "Musa misses Riven, and Nabu misses Layla, and he won't admit it but Brandon misses Stella. I miss Stella, too. And I miss Tecna. And Layla. And even Riven. Do you miss them aswell?"

Timmy shut his eyes tightly to keep his tears at bay, and breathed in shakily to regain some control over his emotions. "Yes."

"Do you miss me, Timmy?"

The girl's eyes stared blankly ahead. "Flora?"

"Because I think I'm going too."

"Going where?"

Flora tilted her head pitifully, as if she felt sorry for him for not understanding. "Where everyone else is."

"Timmy?"

The carrot-haired Specialist spun round quickly, poised to attack, but was surprised to find Nabu and Musa stumbling through the undergrowth of the forest. "Nabu!"

"Flora!" Musa pulled her friend into a tight hug, gripping her shoulders so hard her nails started to dig into Flora's tanned flesh. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

Flora stood uncomfortably in Musa's embrace, trembling voilently at the sudden contact, before trying desperately to wriggle out. After what Helia did, she never wanted to be touched again. Musa gave her a puzzled look, before quickly composing herself. "We need to get out of here."

"There's something out there," Nabu started gravely, staring intensely into Timmy's eyes. "Something you'd never believe existed."

"Have you seen Helia? Flora's pretty worried…"

Nabu looked properly at his friend, a shaking mess subconsciously scratching her arms, her eyes darting around her surroundings nervously. He knew that look. It was the unstable kind of hope one had when they lost everything they knew and loved, the desperate searching for what was missing. It was insanity.

"We'll find Helia," Nabu promised, because if there was one thing they all needed right now, it was some stability in this messed-up situation.

* * *

"Helia!" Tecna stumbled into the arms of the long-haired Specialist who, startled, shoved her away again. Tecna composed herself quickly, reminding herself that it could be too late. "Are you one of them?"

"No." His cold, cobalt eyes bore into her mad teal ones. "Are you?"

"No." Helia let out a long sigh and sunk to the ground.

"They've all changed. Timmy, Brandon, Sky, Nabu, Stella, Musa, even Flora…" The pink-haired girl nodded her head in agreement and sat next to him on the damp earthy floor, concealed by the tightly bonded vines.

"I know. You know what we have to do, don't you?"

Helia nodded. "I saw the other me. He came out of nowhere and started hurting me when I was trying to help Flora. Atleast, I thought it was her. Then Timmy arrived, freed her, and all three ambushed me. I barely escaped."

"I left Fake Timmy, Fake Nabu and Fake Musa not long before. I was planning to double-back when I found some strange footprints. There's a creature that has the ability to claw its way through this forest, and possibly through us. I saw it chase Fake Musa not long ago. I wonder if it got her," Tecna mused thoughtfully.

"We can use this to our advantage." Helia began to sketch a diagram in the soft soil using a stick. "If we manage to meet up with the rest of the group, we can set a trap for the monster to finish them off whilst we hatch an escape plan."

"Brilliant! We could use the ship!"

"Ship?"

"The ship we came in," Tecna answered, confused. "If we find it, we can make repairs and get out of here."

* * *

Brandon stopped a metre or so in front of the river. "Hey, jerk." Chris glared at the man before him, and unwillingly took a step forward so he was within touching distance of the Red Fountain Specialist. Cowering behind him was Princess Stella, her narrowed eyes boring into her imposter on the other side of the sparkling river.

"Why'd you come back? It'll only strengthen the spell."

"You know as well as I do that there's only one way out of this place." Brandon leaned forward, forcing Chris to do the same. "Where is it?"

"Ask her." Chris used all of his strength to make his thumb twitch towards Anastasia. Brandon didn't see, but he didn't need to as he knew who Chris was talking about.

"I don't know," Anastasia mumbled. "It's not like I built this place. All I did was cast a mirroring spell."

"Then how is it that the river is the mirror?" Stella spat.

"Because I put it there you dumb bimbo! Chris separated your bodies before I did it, I neatened the two of you up so you'd think you were free, then action time. I didn't think your precious squire would be educated enough to know how to get to the other side."

"My Brandon's very intelligent actually," Stella said proudly, linking her arm with Brandon's. "Now how do we get out?"

Small ripples of water disturbed the once peaceful river, attracting the attention of all four beings. If you looked past the river's surface, to the bottom of what seemed a tranquil waterbed only a few moments ago, something was disturbing the river as well as its audience's nerves. A cluster of twigs floated gently to the surface from a cloud of filth, arranging themselves carefully so the same word was reflected on both sides. The answer to Stella's question.

_Kill._


End file.
